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THE 



MORNING WATCHES 






PfEADINGROO 

NIGHT WATCHES.' 



BY 

THE AUTHOR OF "THE FAITHFUL PROMISEE." 



*\ 



NEW YORK: 
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 

No. 285 BROADWAY. 
1853. 



US; 



Exchange 
Western Ont. Univ. Libr Jjry 

JUN 3 1939 



R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER, 

53 Vesey Street, N. F. 



■ 



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THE 



MORNING WATCHES. 



" Come near, and bless us when we wake, 
Ere through the world our way we take ; 
Till, in the ocean of Thy love, 
We lose ourselves in heaven above !" 



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Ps. cxxx. 6. 



THE MORNING WATCHES. 



This little volume is designed to form, by the 
Divine blessing, an humble auxiliary in promoting 
what is pronounced in the best of all manuals of de- 
votion to be " a good thing" — the showing forth of 
God's " loving-kindness in ilie morning" and His 
" faithfulness every night" — (Ps. xcii. 2). 

It may not be out of place to remark, regarding 
the verse which forms the key-note to each petition 
— a Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer 
unto Thee" — that the word " direct," in the original 
Hebrew, may literally be rendered, " set in order." 
It refers to the setting in order of the wood for the 
burnt-sacrifices in the temple of old. While the 
heart of the believer, according to this beautiful al- 
lusion, is represented as a spiritual altar, on which, 
morning after morning, he offers the oblation of 
prayer, this motto-verse may also serve as a magnet 



Vlll THE MORNING WATCHES. 

to keep the eye fixed, in each successive petition, on 
the great Antitypical Sacrifice, through whom alone 
it is that " the words of our mouths and the medita- 
tions of our hearts" are " acceptable" in the sight of 
God. 

Though more strictly designed for private devo- 
tion, and therefore expressed in the first person, it 
is hoped, by the substitution of the plural pronoun, 
that the following pages may not be inappropriate 
for the family altar. 

December 25, 1851. 



$itst letting. 

FOR PAEDON OF SIN. 

"For Thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine in- 
iquity ; for it is great." — Ps. xxv. 11. 

God, I bless Thee that Thou hast permit- 
ted me to lie down in sleep, and to awake this 
morning in safety. Thou hast dispersed the 
darkness of another night : may no shadow 
of sin obscure the sunshine of Thy favor and 
love. May the returning light of day be to 
me the type and emblem of that better radi- 
ance with which Thou visitest the souls of 
Thy people, when they are enabled, in Jesus, 
to behold a pardoning God seated on a throne 
of reconciliation and grace. 

1 come to Thee, acknowledging my trans- 
gressions in all their heinousness. I have 
nothing to plead in extenuation. Warnings 



10 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

have been abused, providences slighted, grace 
resisted, Thy Spirit grieved. It is of the 
Lord's mercies I am not consumed — that 
Thou hast not long ere now consigned me, 
with all this load of unpardoned guilt, to that 
place where pardon is unknown. 

But I do rejoice to know that " there is 
forgiveness with Thee, that Thou may est be 
feared" — -that I can bring my great sins to a 
great Saviour. May I be enabled to feel that 
this all-glorious name of a reconciled God in 
Christ is " a strong tower," into which I may 
" run and be safe." G-ive me grace, in self- 
renouncing lowliness, to disown every other 
ground of confidence or hope of mercy, and 
to cast myself, a broken-hearted, humbled 
penitent, at the feet of Him on whom was laid 
the burden of all my transgressions. May 
mine henceforth be the blessedness of those 
" whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose 
sins are covered." May life's joys be sweet- 
ened, and life's sorrows sanctified, and life's 
terminating hour gladdened, with the as- 



FOE PARDON OF SIN. 11 

surance, " I am at peace with my God." 
May Thy favor brighten every scene, and 
the sweet sense of Thy reconciling love 
be interfused with all my occupations. If 
sorrow should cloud or darken, may I be 
brought to feel that there can be no true sor- 
row or disquietude to the soul which has 
found its rest in the finished work of Jesus, 
and which has attained that blessed peace 
here which is the prelude of glory hereafter. 
Give me grace to walk more closely with 
Thee in the time to come. Being forgiven 
much, may I love Thee all the more. May 
my life be one habitual effort of self and sin 
crucifixion, seeking to consecrate my soul's 
best energies to Him who is willing to " blot 
out as a thick cloud" all my transgressions. 
Overrule the discipline of Thy providence for 
promoting within me this death of sin, and 
this life of righteousness. Amid earth's man- 
ifold disquietudes, its crosses and its losses, 
enable me with joy to look forward to that 
blessed hour when there shall be no more sin, 



12 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

and therefore no more sorrow — when every 
tear shall be wiped from every eye, and 
when I shall be permitted to know all that 
is comprehended in the holy beatitude, how 
" blessed" indeed are "the pure in heart," 
who are to " see God." 

Direct, control, suggest, this day, all my 
designs, and thoughts, and actions, that every 
power of my body, and every faculty of my 
mind, may unite in devotedness to Thy sole 
service and glory. And all I ask is for Jesus 5 
sake. Amen. 

"cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning, 



FOR RENEWAL OF HEART. 

"Create in me a clean heart, O G-od, and renew aright 
spirit within me." — Ps. li. 10. 

Almighty God, who hast mercifully pre- 
served me during the unconscious hours of 
slumber, I desire to dedicate my waking mo- 
ments and thoughts to Thee. Do Thou pre- 
occupy my mind with hallowed and heavenly 
things. May I be enabled throughout this 
day, by the help of Thy Holy Spirit, to ex- 
clude all that is vain, and frivolous, and sin- 
ful, and to have my affections centred on 
Thee, as my best portion and chiefest joy. 
As Thy Spirit of old did brood over the face 
of the waters, may that same blessed Spirit 
descend in all the plenitude of His heavenly 
graces, that the gloom of a deeper moral 



14 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

chaos may be dispersed, and that mine may 
be the beauty and happiness and gladness of 
a soul that has been transformed " from dark- 
ness to light, and from the power of sin and 
Satan unto God." 

Forbid, blessed Lord ! that I should be 
resting in anything short of this new creation. 
May my old nature be crucified ; and, as one 
alive from the dead, may I " walk with Jesus 
in newness of life." May the new life in- 
fused by Thy Spirit urge me to higher attain- 
ments and more heavenly aspirations. May 
I be enabled to see the world in its true light 
— its pleasures fading, its hopes delusive, its 
friendships perishable. May I be more sol- 
emnly and habitually impressed by the sur- 
passing magnitude of " the things not seen." 
May I give evidence of the reality of a re- 
newal of heart by a more entire and con- 
sistent dedication of the life. May my soul 
become a temple of the Holy Ghost ; may 
" Holiness to the Lord" be its superscription. 
May I be led to feel that there can be no true 



FOE RENEWAL OF HEART. 15 

joy but what emanates from Thyself, the 
fountain and fulness of all joy — the God in 
whom " all my well-springs" are. 

Whatever may be the discipline Thou art 
employing for this inward heart-transforma- 
tion, let me be willing to submit to it. Let 
me lie passive in the arms of Thy mercy, 
saying, " Undertake Thou for me." May it 
be mine to bear all, and endure all, and re- 
joice in all — adoring a Father's hand, and 
trusting a Father's faithfulness — feeling se- 
cure in a Father's tried love. 

Blessed Jesus ! anew would I wash in the 
opened Fountain. The new heart, like every 
holy blessing I can ask, is the purchase of 
that blood which Thou didst so freely shed. 
May it be sprinkled on my guilty conscience. 
May I know ever what it is to be living on a 
living Saviour, bringing all-emptiness to all- 
fulness — the unworthiness of infinite demerit 
to the worthiness of all-sufficient, all-abound- 
ing, grace and mercy. 

Do Thou shine upon my ways. May I this 



16 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

day get nearer heaven. May I feel at its 
close that I have done something for God — 
something to promote the great end for which 
existence was given me — the glory of Thy 
holy name. Bless all my beloved friends. 
Unite us together in bonds of holy fellowship 
here ; and at last, in Thy presence, may we 
be permitted to drink together of the streams 
of everlasting love. And all I ask is for 
Jesus' sake. Amen. 

"cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning, 



I|irfo Hunting, 

FOR SANCTIFYING GRACE. 

"I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." — Exod. xxxi. 13. 

Most blessed God, Thou hast permitted me 
in Thy great goodness to see the light of an- 
other day. May I be enabled to receive 
every returning morning as a fresh token of 
Thy love — a renewal of my lease of existence 
— a fresh grant of mercy from the Author of 
all being. May I seek, this day, and every 
day, to consecrate the life spared by Thy 
bounty more and more to Thy praise. 

Lord, I come anew with my burden of sin. 

It is Thy marvellous forbearance that does 

not make every succeeding morning my last. 

I bless Thee that there is still the cleansing 

blood, the " Wonderful Counsellor," the all- 

2* 



18 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

gracious Spirit. Give me to know, ere I go 
forth into the world, what it is to have the 
sense of Thy reconciled love. "Whether in 
public or in private, in the intercourse of life 
or in the seclusion of solitude, may I realize 
Thy presence. May it be to me the sweetest 
and most blessed of all thoughts, that a cov- 
enant God is " compassing my path" — that 
by Him I am defended, guided, supported — 
safe ! 

Heavenly Father, it is the unholiness of my 
heart which mars the joys of my communion 
with Thee. It is my especial prayer that 
Thou mayest impart largely to me of the 
sanctifying influences of Thy grace and Spirit. 
Let sin be crucified more and more. Let 
self be subjugated more and more. Under 
the transforming power of new affections, may 
God become all in all. May it be mine to 
know, in growing experience, the happiness 
of true holiness. May I jealously avoid all 
that is likely to estrange me from Thee, and 
zealously cultivate all that is calculated to 



FOR SANCTIFYING GRACE. 19 

draw me nearer towards Thee. " Thy favor 
is life" — O show me that to lose Thy favor is 
death indeed ! 

This blessed work of inward sanctification 
is Thine. Alas I I feel my constant prone- 
ness to wander from Thee, and to seek my 
happiness in the perishable. My best resolu- 
tions, how frail ! my warmest affections, how 
languid and lukewarm ! my holiest moments, 
how distracted with vain thoughts and worldly 
cares ! — my whole life, how stained with sin ! 
But do Thou strengthen me with all might, 
by Thy Spirit, in the inner man. My daily 
cry would be, " More grace ! more grace l ,? 
There is no sufficiency in myself ; but hast 
Thou not promised to make Thy grace suffi- 
cient ? May I make it my grand ambition to 
be marking, day by day, my Zionward pro- 
gress — my growing conformity to the holy 
character of a holy God. 

For this end, overrule all the dispensations 
of Thy providence. May I hear a voice in 
each of them proclaiming, "Be holy." May 



20 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

I be led to bear them all, and to rejoice in 
them all, if they thus be the means of bring- 
ing me nearer Thyself. 

I commend to Thy fatherly protection all 
my beloved friends, and all for whom I ought 
to pray. " Sanctify them through Thy 
truth." May they all be presented unblama- 
ble before Thee in the day of Christ's ap- 
pearing. 

And may the grace of the Lord Jesus and 
the love of God, and the communion and fel- 
lowship of the Holy Ghost, be with me now 
and ever. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 
FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST." 



FOR SUPPORT IS TEMPTATION. 

''Hold Thou rae up, and I snail "be safe." — Fs. cxix. 117. 

Most gracious God, give me grace to begin 
a new morning with Thee. Ere entering on 
the world, I invoke Thy blessing. Before I 
hear the voice of earthly friend, or mingle in 
earthly society, may I have a conscious filial 
nearness to Thee, my Father in heaven. O 
Thou better, tenderer, dearer than all on 
earth, give me the sweet assurance of Thy 
presence and favor. With this, all the day's 
joys will be joys indeed — with this, the sting 
will be extracted from the day's sorrows. In 
quiet confidence I will repose on Thy cov- 
enant faithfulness. I need no other benedic- 
tion, Lord, if I have Thine. Other portions 



22 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

may fail me, but I am independent of all, if 
" Thou art the strength of my heart, and my 
portion forever." 

I adore and bless Thy holy name for every 
past token of Thy kindness and forbearance. 
The retrospect of life is a retrospect of love. 
I am a wonder to myself that Thou hast 
spared me — that mercy is remembered when 
nothing but wrath is deserved. " Unless the 
Lord had been my help, my soul had long 
ere now dwelt in silence." 

On that same arm I would desire still to 
lean. I am compassed about with a great 
fight of afflictions, and the sorest and saddest 
of all are my sins. But I fly to Thee, thou 
helper of the helpless. Give me to know 
what it is to dismiss all my own guilty mis- 
givings, and to rest my simple faith on a tried 
Redeemer. It is mistrust of Him that has 
been the cause of many a bygone fall. I 
have been dwelling more on the strength of 
my temptations than on the strength of my 
Saviour. O " hold Thou me up, blessed Je- 



FOR SUPPORT IN TEMPTATION. 23 

sus ! and I shall be safe." Whenever in the 
way of sin, give me to realize the all-suf- 
ciency of Thy grace. May every hurricane 
of temptation drive me more tinder the shel- 
ter of the Rock. May the loss of every 
earthly prop lead me to Thyself — the only 
abiding refuge. No step in the wilderness- 
journey would I take without Thee. No loss 
would I mourn when sustained at Thy bid- 
ding. No enemy would I fear if Thou art 
on my side. Hold Thou me up, and then in- 
deed I shall be safe — safe for time — safe for 
eternity. 

And the same support I ask for myself, I 
beseech Thee to vouchsafe to all near and 
dear to me. May the Lord God be their 
" sun and shield." May they experience no 
temptation " above what they are able to 
bear ;" or, with the temptation, grant them 
grace that they may be able to bear it. And 
w T hen all earthly dangers, and toils, and trials 
are over, may we all be enabled to meet in 
glory, and trace there, with adoring gratitude 



24 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

and joy, the way in which Thy mercy 
through life " has held us up." 

Anew I commend myself, body and soul, 
to Thee this day. For Thy dear Son's sake, 
forgive all my sins. My sole trust is in the 
atoning blood. May I feel this to be the best 
preservative against temptation and sin, that 
all I am, and all I have, is not my own, but 
belongs to the Lord who died for me. Hear 
these my unworthy supplications, and grant 
me an answer in peace, for His sake. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 
FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST." 



$ift\ Panting, 

FOR HELP IN TROUBLE. 

" Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt re- 
vive me." — Ps. cxxxviii. 7. 

Most blessed Lord, who hast again permit- 
ted me to approach a throne of grace, do 
Thou this day shine into my heart. Anew 
may I enter on another day's duties and 
trials, with a soul calm and peaceful amid all 
other disquietudes, by being at peace with 
Thee. 

I bless Thee that I can ever " sing of mercy" 
as well as of " judgment." Thy dealings 
might have been all in unmixed wrath, but 
the severest of them are tempered with 
gracious love. O that they may have their 
designed effect of driving me to the only true 



26 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

rest for the soul, in the bosom of its God ! 
May the breaking of cistern by cistern only 
endear to me the more the great Fountain- 
head. 

How often dost Thou send tribulations, that 
Thy people may see more of Thy gracious 
hand ! How often, when the waters are 
troubled, do we recognize the presence of the 
great Covenant-angel himself, and experience 
the plenitude of His upholding grace and 
mercy ! Lord, my earnest prayer is, that 
every trial may serve to unfold to me more of 
the preciousness of Jesus. As prop by prop, 
which was wont to support me on earth, may 
be giving way, may I know what it is to lean 
my. whole weight upon Him, and leave my 
whole case with Him, repairing to Him as 
the friend that " sticketh closer than any 
brother" — into His sympathizing bosom to 
confide my every want — from His inexhaust- 
ible treasury to draw every consolation — and 
on His upholding arm confidingly and habit- 
ually to rest. 



FOR HELP IN TROUBLE. 27 

What, O blessed Saviour, are my troubles 
to Thine! What are my bitterest tears and 
most aching heart in comparison with what 
Thou didst so freely endure for me ! May 
the remembrance of this Thy fellowship in 
my suffering, and my fellowship in Thine, 
reconcile me patiently to endure whatsoever 
Thou seest meet to lay upon me. Give me 
grace ever to see that my bitterest trial is my 
sin, that my heaviest cross is the cross of my 
wandering treacherous heart. When I think 
of that blessed time when God shall termi- 
nate the tears of a weeping world, may this 
be my loftiest ground of rejoicing — that there 
will be then no more sin to cause them. 

Humbly I would lie at my Saviour's feet, 
disowning all trust save in Him — exulting in 
His finished work, and meritorious righteous- 
ness, and all-prevalent intercession. I rejoice 
to think of the redeemed multitude before 
His throne, " whom no man can number," 
and to feel that His ability and willingness 
"to save unto the uttermost" are still the same. 



28 THE MORNING WATCPIES. 

Command, O Lord, thy richest blessing this 
day on all whom I love. May all my rela- 
tives be related to Thee in the common bonds 
of the gospel. Though separated by distance 
from each other on life's highway, may we 
enjoy the consolation that we are all tread- 
ing the same invisible road Zionward — that 
earth's dearest and tenderest ties will, at the 
end of the chequered journey, be strengthened 
and perpetuated in the full vision and fruition 
of Thee our God. 

May the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the 
love of God, and the fellowship and commu- 
nion of the Holy Ghost, be with me this day 
and ever. Amen. 

"CAUSE MB TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



j&ifftft Hunting- 

FOE GOMFOBT IN BEREAVEMENT. 

"Turn Thee unto me, and have mercy upon me, for I 
am desolate and afflicted." — Ps. xxv. 16. 

O God, I come to Thee this morning, re- 
joicing in the simple but sublime assurance 
that " the Lord reigneth." Thy judgments 
are often " a great deep." May it be mine 
ever to own Thy sovereignty, and to rest sat- 
isfied with the assurance, " He hath done all 
things well." 

It is indeed my comfort to know that " my 
times" are not in my own hands, but in Thine. 
When in vain I seek to explain the mystery 
of Thy inscrutable doings, may I be enabled 
implicitly to trust Thine unswerving rectitude 
and faithfulness. The kindest and best of 
earthly parents may err — they may be be- 



30 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

trayed into unnecessary harshness and sever- 
ity — but Thou, O unerring Parent, wilt not, 
and canst not inflict one unneeded stroke. I 
can own Thy wisdom where I cannot discern 
it. I can trust the footsteps of love where I 
cannot trace them. 

I look back with adoring wonder on all Thy 
marvellous dealings towards me in the past. 
"When my foot slipped, Thy mercy, O Lord, 
held me up." How many tear-drops have 
been dried by Thee ! How many sorrows 
have been soothed by Thee ! How many 
dangers have been averted by Thee ! In- 
stead of wondering at my trials, I have 
rather reason to marvel at Thy forbearance. 
What are my heaviest afflictions in compar- 
ison with the deserts of sin ? Lord, if they 
had been in proportion to my guilt, I could 
not have had one hour of joy. 

Give me grace not only to bear all, and to 
endure all, but to glory in all which Thy 
chastening love sees meet to appoint. Afflic- 
tion is Thine own appointed training-school 



FOR COMFORT IN BEREAVEMENT. 31 

for immortality. If I need sucli training, 
Lord, withhold it not. Rather subject me to 
the severest ordeal of fatherly discipline, than 
leave me to vex Thee more with my guilty 
departures and backsliding. I will confide 
in the tenderness of Thy dealings— that Thou 
wilt conduct me by no rougher path than is 
really needful. Thou hast given Thy Son for 
me ! After such a pledge of Thy love, may 
it never be mine to breathe one murmuring 
word. 

For all in sorrow, Lord, I pray that they 
may take their sorrows to the " Man of sor- 
rows.' 5 May they be willing to forget their 
own light afflictions as they behold His bleed- 
ing wounds. Blessed God, what a source of 
joy to the whole family of the afflicted, that 
the exalted Head and elder brother has Him- 
self tasted sorrow's bitterest cup ! Lord Je- 
sus, Thou who hast suffered so much for me, 
grant that by patience and unrepining sub- 
mission I may be enabled to " glorify thee in 
the fires." 



32 THE MORNING WATCHES.' 

All my beloved friends I commit to Thy 
care. May the Lord be their everlasting por- 
tion. Forbid that I should have to mourn in 
them what would be bitterer than the pang 
of all earthly bereavement— that they are be- 
reft of Thy favor. Make them Thine, and in 
the midst of life's vicissitudes and changes, 
may we all look forward to that better time, 
and that better world, where sorrow and 
sighing shall forever flee away. And all I 
ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



S£lunt| ft Anting* 

FOR LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 

"Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness," 
— Ps. csii. 4. 

Eternal, everlasting God, I bless Thee for 
the privilege of access into Thy presence. 
What am I — a guilty, unworthy sinner, de- 
serving only of condemnation — that I should 
be permitted, with holy boldness, to approach 
the footstool of Thy throne, and call Thee 
" my Father in heaven !" 

I rejoice to know, when " my heart is over- 
whelmed, and in perplexity," that I can 
ever look unto Thee as a " Rock that is higher 
than I" — that, amid all the ebbings and Sow- 
ings in the tide of my own fitful frames and 
feelings, Thou, great Rock of ages, remainest 
fixed and immovable. Thou hast never failed 



34 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

me in the past. When " deep has been call- 
ing to deep," and many " waves and billows 
have gone over me," u the Lord has com- 
manded His loving-kindness in the day-time, 
and in the night His song has been with me, 
and my prayer unto the God of my life." 
And I will trust Thee in the future. In the 
midst of baffling and mysterious providences 
I will be still — hushing every murmur, and 
breathing in lowly resignation the prayer, 
" divinely taught," " Thy will be done." 

It is my comfort to know that the darkest 
cloud is fringed with covenant love. I can 
repose on the blessed assurance that present 
discipline is needed discipline, and that all 
which is mystery now will be cleared up here- 
after. May it be mine cheerfully to follow 
the footsteps of the guiding Shepherd through 
the darkest, loneliest road, and amidst thick- 
ening sorrows may I have grace to say, 
" Though He slay me, yet will I trust in 
Him." 

Lord, increase my faith — let it rise above 



V 



FOR LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 35 

all difficulties and all trials. Let these drive 
me closer to Him who has promised to make 
me " more than conqueror." Let them 
quicken my longings for the true home of 
my soul above. J May it be my grand am- 
bition here to be a "pilgrim" in everything 
— to be pitching my tent day by day nearer 
heaven, imbibing every day more of the pil- 
grim character, and longing more for the pil- 
grim's rest. May I be enabled to say, with 
an increasingly chastened spirit, of a passing 
world, " Here I have no continuing city." 
May this assurance dry all tears, and recon- 
cile to all sorrows — "I am journeying unto 
the place of which the Lord hath said, I will 
give it you." 

Blessed Jesus, hasten Thy coming and Thy 
kingdom. Scatter the darkness which is now 
covering heathen nations. Stand by Thy 
missionary servants. May they exercise a 
simple faith on Thine own sure word of prom- 
ise. " Strong in the Lord and in the power 
of His might," may every mountain of diffi- 



36 THE MOENING WATCHES. 

culty be made a plain, and " the glory of the 
Lord be revealed." 

God of Bethel, I commend to Thee all my 
beloved friends. Shield them by Thy pro- 
tecting providence. Give them every needed 
blessing in the present life, and in the world 
to come life everlasting. And all I ask is for 
Jesus' sake. Amen. 



" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 
FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST." 



$*0fe*ft Hunting, 

FOR HOPE IN DISCOURAGEMENT. 

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art 
thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God." — Ps. 
xliii. 5. 

O God, in Thine infinite mercy Thou hast 
again spared me to approach Thy blessed 
presence. May each morning find me better 
prepared for the glorious waking-time of im- 
mortality, when "the day shall break," and 
earth's shadows shall forever " flee away." 
May I seek to rise this day in newness of life, 
breathing more of the atmosphere of holi- 
ness, and partaking more of the character of 
heaven. 

Thou art ever, by the salutary dispensa- 
tions of Thy providence, reminding me that 
" earth is not my rest." It is well, Lord, 






38 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

that it should he so ; that, by Thine own 
gracious and needed discipline, the world be 
disarmed of its insinuating power, and I be 
weaned from what is precarious at the best, 
and which ultimately must perish. 

O my God, I feel heavily burdened by 
reason of sin. I mourn my guilty proneness 
to temptation. How anything and every- 
thing seems often enough to drive me from 
Thee, and to lead me to seek my happiness 
in created good, rather than in Thyself, the 
infinite fountain of all excellence ! How 
sad have been my backslidings ! — how have 
solemn vows been broken ! — how have aban- 
doned and forsworn sins threatened again to 
have dominion over me ! How little tender- 
ness of conscience has there been ! — how lit- 
tle dread of an uneven walk ! How often, 
on the heart which I have consecrated to 
Thee as an altar for the perpetual sacrifice of 
praise, and gratitude, and love, has there 
been burning incense to strange gods ! 

Lord, when I look to my inner self, I have 



FOR HOPE IN DISCOURAGEMENT 39 

good cause indeed for misgivings and despon- 
dency. Conscience repeats, over and over 
again, a sentence of condemnation, and I 
have naught to extenuate my guilt or palliate 
my sin. Whither can I flee ? Where can I 
look but to Thee, O Lamb of God, thou sin- 
bearing and sin-forgiving Saviour ! 

Enable me to be living more from moment 
to moment on Thy grace — to rely on thy 
guiding arm with more childlike confidence 
— to look with a more simple faith to Thy 
finished work, disowning all trust in my own 
doings, and casting myself, as a poor needy 
pensioner, on the bounty of Him who hath 
done all, and suffered all, and endured all, 
for me. Thus relying on the unseen arm of a 
covenant-God, when the hour of darkness and 
discouragement overtakes me — when trials 
multiply, and comforts fail, and streams of 
earthly blessing are dried up — may I have 
what compensates for the loss of all, " Thy 
favor, which is life, and Thy loving-kindness, 
• which is better than life." " I will go in the 



40 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

strength of the Lord God." "Though he 
slay me, yet will I trust in Him." 

Be the God of all near and clear to me. 
May all my relatives be able to claim a 
spiritual relationship with Thee, that so those 
earthly bonds of attachment, which sooner or 
later must snap asunder here, may be re- 
newed and perpetuated before the throne. 

Compassionate all who are in sorrow. Com- 
fort the feeble-minded. May "the joy of 
the Lord be their strength." May valuable 
lives be prolonged. May those appointed 
unto death be prepared for their great change. 
And all I ask is for Jesus 5 sake. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



pttil] llonrntg- 

FOR WISDOM IN PERPLEXITY. 

" Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for 
I lift up my soul unto Thee."— Ps. cxliii. 8, 

eternal Lord, whose nature and whose 
name is love, I bless Thee that I am again 
invited into Thy presence. What am I, that 
I should be permitted to speak to the infinite 
God ! I might have been left through eter- 
nity a monument of Thy righteous vengeance. 
I might have known Thee only as " the con- 
suming fire." But " Thy ways are not as 
man's ways ;" mercy is remembered when 
wrath might have come upon me to the utter- 
most. 

1 desire to begin this day, blessing and 
praising Thee for " Thine unspeakable gift," 

Jesus the Son of Thy love. Adored be Thy 

4# 



42 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

name, that tlie guilt of my sin, which the 
holiness of Thy law could not suffer other- 
wise to be cancelled, has to Him been trans- 
ferred — that, as the scape-goat of His people, 
He has borne the mighty load into the land 
of oblivion, never more to be remembered. 
May I be enabled to show forth my lively 
grattitude to Thee for this wondrous token of 
Thy love, not only by lip-homage, but by 
heart and life devotion. Sanctify and seal 
me in body, soul, and spirit ; and present me 
at last " faultless before the presence of Thy 
glory with exceeding joy." 

O my God, I rejoice to know that my in- 
terests for time and eternitv are confided to 
Thy keeping. Though often " wonderful in 
counsel," Thou art ever " excellent in work- 
ing." Thou art " God only wise" — " right- 
eous in all Thy ways, and holy in all Thy 
works." I commit my way and my doings 
unto Thee. " Hold Thou me up, and I shall 
be safe." May I trust Thy wisdom and faith- 
fulness, even amid crosses, and losses, and 



FOR WISDOM IN PERPLEXITY. 43 

frowning providences. Make them all work 
together for my good. 

If my path be in any way now hedged up 
with thorns, " undertake Thou for me." 
" Guide me with Thy counsel." Let me take 
no step, and engage in no plan, unsanctioned 
by Thine approval. Let it be my grand aim 
and ambition, in all the changes of a chang- 
ing life, to hear Thy directing voice, saying, 
"This is the way, walk ye in it ;" and then 
shall all life's trials be sweetened, and life's 
burden lightened, by knowing that they are 
the appointment of infinite wisdom and un- 
changing love, and that, though man may 
err, God never can. 

May Thy Holy Spirit lead me this day into 
all the truth. May all its duties be pervaded 
by the leavening power of vital godliness. 
While in the world, may I seek to feel and 
to exhibit that I am not of it. May I give 
evidence, in my walk and conversation, of a 
renewed nature, and of a nobler destiny. 
Hasten, blessed Jesus, Thy coming and Thy 



44 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

kingdom. "How long shall the wicked 
triumph ?" " Save Thy people and bless 
Thine inheritance ; feed them also, and lift 
them up forever.' ' 

Let the voice of salvation be heard in the 
households of all I love. May theirs be the 
dwellings of the righteous. May this be 
their name, " The Lord is there." May they 
know Him who hath said, " I will never leave 
thee, nor forsake thee." 

And " now, Lord, what wait I for ? my 
hope is in Thee." Hear and answer these un- 
worthy supplications, for Jesus' sake. Amen. 



" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



1 t\x\\ Panting* 

FOR STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS. 

''My strength, is made perfect in wealmess." — 2 Cor. xii. 9. 

O thou high and mighty God, inhabiting 
eternity, do Thou draw near unto a poor un- 
worthy sinner, who ventures anew this morn- 
ing to approach the footstool of Thy throne. 
Vouchsafe me now the gracious aids of Thy 
gracious Spirit, that out of much weakness I 
may be made strong. It is Thine own gra- 
cious assurance, that " they that wait upon 
the Lord shall renew their strength." I 
would rely on the faithfulness of a promising 
God. May my own utter emptiness drive 
me to all fulness. May my own conscious 
weakness wean me from all earthly props, 
and confidences, and refuges, to " abide un- 
der the shadow of the Almighty." 



46 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

Lord, I confess this day with shame and 
confusion of face my manifold infirmities, 
my coldness and lukewarmness, my distrust 
of Thy providence, my insensibility to Thy 
love, my murmuring at Thy dealings, my 
tampering with sin, my resisting of Thy 
grace. How often, like the slender reed, 
have I bent before the blast of temptation, 
my best resolutions proving " as the morning 
cloud and early dew !" 

And yet, gracious Father, Thou hast not 
broken "the bruised reed" — Thou hast not 
" quenched the smoking flax." I am here 
this morning a marvel to myself that Thou 
art still sparing me. u Thy ways are not as 
man's ways." Had it been so, Thou wouldst 
long since have grown weary. But it is the 
prerogative of the everlasting God that " He 
fainteth not, neither is weary." Thou art 
this morning giving me fresh grants of mercy, 
renewed proofs and tokens of unmerited love. 
I am receiving " at the Lord's hand double 
for all my sins." 



FOR STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS. 47 

I rejoice to know, blessed Jesus, that it is 
Thy burdened ones Thou hast specially prom- 
ised "gently to lead." Thou wilt conduct 
me by no rougher road than is necessary. 
" Undertake Thou for me." May the wilder- 
ness journey be this day resumed and re- 
newed with a more simple, and childlike, and 
habitual leaning on Thee. Do Thou put this 
new song into my mouth, " The Lord is my 
rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer ; my 
God, my strength, in whom I will trust." 
Say unto me, in the midst of my weakness, 
"Fear not, thou worm Jacob." With the 
pillar of Thy presence ever before me, " I 
will go from strength to strength." 

Keep me this day from sin. May no evil 
thoughts, or vain imaginings, or deceitful 
lusts, obtrude on my walk with God. May 
an affecting sense of how frail I am, keep me 
near the atoning sacrifice. May the " horns 
of the altar" ever be in sight. Blessed Je- 
sus, my helpless soul would hang every mo- 
ment upon Thee. 



48 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

Look down in Thy kindness on all connect- 
ed with me by ties of earthly kindred. May 
the blessing of the God of Bethel rest on 
every heart and household I love. May we 
all be journeying Zionwards, and be so 
weaned from earth as to feel that Zionwards 
is homewards. If pursuing different paths, 
and separated, it may be, far from one an- 
other, may the journey have one blessed and 
happy termination. May we meet in glory, 
and meet with Thee. And all I ask is for 
the Kedeemer's sake. Amen. 



(i CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 






FOR GRATITUDE FOR MERCIES. 

"What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits 
towards me ?"— Ps. cxvi. 12. 

O God, I adore Thee as the Author and 
Giver of every good and every perfect gift. 
Thou art daily loading me with Thy benefits. 
Every returning morning brings with it fresh 
causes for gratitude — new material for praise. 
I bless Thee for Thy temporal bounties — 
" how great has been the sum of them !" 
While others have been pining in poverty, or 
wasted by sickness, or racked in pain, or left 
friendless and portionless, Thou hast been 
making showers of blessing to fall around my 
dwelling. I laid me down last night and 
slept— I awaked, for the Lord sustained me. 
I might never have seen the morning light. 



1 



50 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

Mine might have been the midnight sum- 
mons to meet a God in whose righteous pres- 
ence I was all unmeet and unprepared to 
stand. And yet I am again spared a monu- 
ment of Thy goodness. Oh, do Thou enkin- 
dle a flame of undying gratitude to Thee, on 
the clay-cold altar of my heart. I mourn and 
lament that I am so little and so feebly af- 
fected by the magnitude of Thy mercies, and 
especially by the riches of Thy grace and 
love manifested in Jesus ; — that my affec- 
tions are so little alive to the incalculable 
obligation under which I am laid to Him 
who hath " loved me with an everlasting 
love." I am doubly Thine. Creation and 
redemption combine in claiming all I am, and 
all I have, for Thee and Thy service. Good 
Lord, preserve me from the sin of insensibil- 
ity to Thine unwearied kindness — of taking 
Thy mercies as matters of course, and thus 
living in a state of independence of Thee. 
May my whole existence become a sacrifice 
of praise ai}d thanksgiving— may all my do- 



FOE GRATITUDE FOR MERCIES. 51 

ings testify the sincerity and devotion of a 
heart feelingly alive to every gift of the great 
Giver ; and, especially, may I be so brought 
under the constraining influence of redeem- 
ing love, as to consecrate every power of my 
body and every faculty of my soul to Him 
who so willingly consecrated and shed His 
very life's blood for me. 

Lord, this day shine upon me with the light 
of Thy countenance ; may every mercy I ex- 
perience in the course of it be hallowed and 
sweetened by the thought that it comes from 
God. And, while ever mindful and thankful 
in the midst of present mercies, teach me to 
keep in view the crowning mercy of all — the 
hope of at last sharing Thy presence and full 
fruition, and of joining in the eternal ascrip- 
tion with the ransomed multitude above, who 
cease not day nor night to celebrate Thy 
praises. 

Bless all near and dear to me. Defend 
them by Thy mighty power. Give them, too, 
gratitude for mercies past, and the sure and 



52 THE M0KNLNG WATCHES. 

well-grounded hope of a glorious inheritance 
in that better world, where mercy is unmixed 
with judgment, and joy undarkened by sor- 
row. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST 



®to*lft& Ittfrttittg, 



FOR CRUCIFIXION OF SIN, 



"I die daily." — 1 Cor. xv. 31. 

Heavenly Father, who hast permitted me, 
in Thy great mercy, to see the light of an- 
other day, enable me to begin and to end it 
with Thee. Let all my thoughts, and pur- 
poses, and actions have the superscription 
written on them — " Holiness to the Lord." 

Give me to know the blessedness of recon- 
ciliation — what it is, as a sinner, and the 
chief of sinners, to come "just as I am, with- 
out one plea," to that blood "which cleanseth 
from all sin. 5 ' I desire to take hold of the 
sublime assurance, that Jesus is "able to save 
unto the uttermost" — that He has left noth- 
ing for me as a suppliant at Thy throne — a 

5* 



54 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

pensioner on Thy bounty — but to accept all 
as the gift and purchase of free, unmerited 
grace. 

While I look to Him as my Saviour from 
the penalty, may I know Him also as my De- 
liverer from the power of sin. I have to la- 
ment that so often I have yielded to its solici- 
tations — that my heart, a temple of the Holy 
Ghost, has been so often profaned and dis- 
honored by the " accursed thing,' 5 marring 
my spiritual joy, and sorely interrupting com- 
munion with the Lord I love. Give me grace 
to exercise a godly jealousy over my traitor 
affections — to live nearer Thee — to have the 
magnet of my heart more centered on Thy- 
self — to keep the eye of faith more steadily 
on Jesus — to live more habitually under " the 
powers of the world to come." Thou knowest 
my lesetting sin — the plague of my heart, 
which so often leads to a guilty estrangement. 
Lord, cut down this root of bitterness. Let 
me nail it to Thy cross. Let me be ever on 
the watch-tower, ready to resist the first as- 



FOR CRUCIFIXION OF SIN. 55 

sault of the enemy. Let it be to me at once 
a precept and a promise — " Sin shall not have 
dominion over you." Oh show me that my 
strength to repel temptation is in Jesus alone. 
Put me in the cleft of the rock when the 
hurricane is passing by. May I be as willing 
to surrender all for my Saviour — my heart- 
sins and life-sins — as He willingly surren- 
dered His all for me. May I be enabled to 
say, " Lord, I am Thine." 

Every idol I utterly abolish. Save me, 
blessed Saviour, from a deceitful heart and a 
seductive world. Let me see more and more 
the beauties of holiness. Let me ever be 
basking in the rays of Thy love — approach- 
ing nearer and nearer Thee, thou " Sun of my 
soul." May Thy loveliness and glory eclipse 
all created beams, and may I look forward 
with bounding heart to that time when all 
that helps to lighten up earth's pathway shall 
be obscured in the shadow of death, and I 
shall be ushered into the glories of that better 
and brighter scene, where " the sun shall no 



~~j 



56 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

more go down, neither shall the moon with- 
draw itself, but where the Lord my God shall 
be my everlasting light." 

And what I ask for myself, I desire in be- 
half of those near and dear to me. Do Thou 
" sanctify them wholly." May they, too, 
crucify sin, and " die daily." May this be 
the happy history of all of us — " Being made 
free from sin, and having become the servants 
of God, we have our fruit unto holiness, and 
the end everlasting life." Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



FOR GROWTH IN HOLINESS. 

" Grow in grace." — 2 Pet. iii. 18. 

O God, draw near to me in Thy great mercy. 
Another peaceful morning has dawned upon 
me. May it be mine to know the happiness 
of those who walk all the day in the light of 
Thy countenance. 

O thou best and kindest of beings, teach me 
to know, amid the smiles and the frowns, the 
joys and the sorrows, of an ever-changing 
world, what it is to have an unchanging ref- 
uge and portion in Thee. I can mourn no 
blank, I can feel no solitude, when I have 
Thy presence and love. If I have naught 
beside — stripped and denuded of every other 



58 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

blessing — I have the richest of all, if I be at 
peace with God. 

I desire to dwell with devout contempla- 
tion on the infinite loveliness of Thy moral 
nature. Lord, I long to have this guilty, err- 
ing soul, moulded and fashioned in increas- 
ing conformity to Thy blessed mind and will. 
/ Let my great concern henceforth be, to love, 
and serve, and please Thee more and more. 
May all Thy dealings with me, of whatever 
kind they be, contribute in promoting this 
growth in holiness. May prosperity draw 
forth a perpetual thank-offering of praise for 
unmerited mercies. May adversity purify 
away the dross of worldliness and sin. May 
every day be finding the power of sin weaker 
and weaker, and the dominion of grace 
stronger and stronger. Living under the 
powers of a world to come, may I look for- 
ward with joyful expectation to the time 
when sin shall no longer impede my spiritual 
growth — when Satan shall be disarmed of his 
power, and my own heart of its deceitfulness 



FOR GROWTH IX HOLINESS. 59 

— when every faculty of a glorified and ex- 
alted nature shall be enlisted in Thy service 
in a world of eternal joy. 

O thou blessed Advocate within the veil — 
Thou who art even now interceding for Thy 
tried and tempted saints, " that their faith fail 
not" — do Thou impart unto me a constant 
supply of Thy promised grace. "Not only 
sprinkle my heart with Thy blood, but con- 
quer it by Thy love. Fill me with deep con- 
trition for an erring past — inspire me with 
purposes of new obedience for the future. 
May I know, in my sweet experience, that 
" Thy yoke is easy, and Thy burden light" — 
that, growing in holiness, I am growing in 
happiness too. Give me an increasing ten- 
derness of conscience about sin — lead me, 
with more filial devotedness, to cultivate a 
holv fear of offending so gracious a Father. 
Habitually realizing my new covenant rela- 
tionship to Thee, may I ever be ready to ex- 
claim, with joyful sincerity, " O Lord, truly 
I am Thy servant !" 



60 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

Kevive, blessed God, Thine own work 
everywhere. " Take unto Thee Thy great 
power, and reign." Eemove all hardness 
and blindness of heart — all contempt of Thy 
Word. May it have free course and be glo- 
rified. 

Bless my dear friends. However far sep- 
arated from one another, we can ever meet at 
the same throne of the heavenly grace, plead- 
ing the same " exceeding great and precious 
promises." May we all be following the same 
path of grace now, and meet amid the end- 
less joys of glory hereafter. And all I ask is 
for Jesus' sake. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 
FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST." 



$nuxtnni\ Hunting* 

FOR VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 

" Whatsoever is "born of G-od overcometh the world." — 
1 John v. 4. 

eternal, everlasting God, Thou art glo- 
rious in holiness, fearful in praises, contin- 
ually doing wonders. Heaven and earth are 
full of the majesty of Thy glory. Thou, the 
almighty keeper of Israel, never slumberest. 
There is not the moment I am away from Thy 
wakeful vigilance. In the defenceless hours 
of sleep, as well as amid life's activities and 
toils, Thou art ever the same — " compassing 
my path and my lying down, and intimately 
acquainted with all my ways." 

1 rejoice to think that I have the assurance 
of such unwearying watchfulness and care, 



62 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

in a world " lying in wickedness." Blessed 
Jesus, in the world Thou hast forewarned me 
to expect tribulation, but, nevertheless, I will 
"be of good cheer, for Thou hast overcome 
the world." Thou hast traversed its wilder- 
ness-depths — Thou hast passed through the 
shadow of its darkest valley. I cannot dread 
what Thou hast trodden and conquered. 

But, alas ! I have to mourn that the world 
which crucified Thee, should be so much loved 
by me — that its pleasures should be so fasci- 
nating — its pursuits so engrossing. Wean me 
from it. Break its alluring spell. Strip it of 
its counterfeit charms. Discover to me its 
hollowness — the treachery of its promises — the 
precariousness of its best blessings — the fleet- 
ing nature of its most enduring friendships. I 
take comfort in the thought, " The Lord God 
is a sun and shield." The world has deceived 
me, but Thou never hast. Guide me by Thy 
counsel. Saviour-God, let me come up from 
the wilderness leaning on Thine arm, exult- 
ing, amid its legion-foes, that greater is He 



FOR VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 63 

that is with, me than all they that can be 
against me, 

O Thou who, in Thy last prayer on earth, 
didst so touchingly say of Thy pilgrim people, 
' 'These are in the world ;" do Thou still bend 
Thy pitying eye upon me, as I travel, burden- 
ed with sin and sorrow, through the valley of 
tears. Do Thou so " sanctify me through Thy 
truth," that, though in the world, I may not 
be of it — not conformed to its sinful practices 
and lying vanities. Bring me to say, with 
regard to all in it that was once so fascinat- 
ing, " My soul is even as a weaned child.' 5 
With my face Zionwards, may I declare plain- 
ly that I seek " a better country." 

Grant that this day, in all my worldly in- 
tercourse, I may have the realizing sense of 
Thy presence and nearness. May I set a 
watch on my heart, and keep the door of my 
lips. May cherished feelings of love and de- 
votedness to Thee be intermingled with all 
life's duties and engagements. May I know 
that a simple faith in Jesus is the great se- 



64: THE MORNING WATCHES. 

cret of victory over the world. O may the 
trembling magnet of my vacillating affections 
be ever pointing to Him, and then I shall be 
made " more than conqueror." 

Through His all-prevailing merits and ad- 
vocacy, hear my prayer. In His most pre- 
cious blood, forgive all my sins. By His in- 
dwelling grace, sanctify my nature, that my 
whole body, soul, and spirit may be preserved 
blameless until His coming. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 
FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST." 



$Uit£\xt\ Darning, 

FOE DEEPER VIEWS OF SELF. 

" Search me, O G-od, and know my heart." — 
Ps. cxxxix. 23. 

O eternal, everlasting God, who hast once 
more enlightened my eyes, and suffered me 
not to sleep the sleep of death, bestow upon 
me this day the riches of Thy grace and love. 
Morning after morning is dawning upon me, 
with new tokens of Thy mercy. Oh, may 
these be bringing me nearer the glorious day 
which is to know no night — that eternal noon- 
tide when all shadows and darkness are for- 
ever to flee away ! 

Lord, I am unworthy to come into Thy pres- 
ence, and yet I have to mourn that I do not 
feel this deep unworthiness as I ought. I am 
unwilling to see into the unknown depths of 



6G THE MORNING WATCHES. 

my sin. I do not know myself. I have no de- 
pressing consciousness of the desperate wick- 
edness of my own evil heart. I have buried 
many bypast transgressions in oblivion. I 
have deluded myself with the thought, that 
many were too trivial and unimportant to in- 
cur Thy disapproval. Even any imperfect 
good which Thy grace has enabled me to per- 
form, I have been too prone to take the merit 
to myself, instead of ascribing all the praise 
to Thee. There has been pride in my humil- 
ity. There have been mingled motives in my 
best services. My best resolutions have been 
fitful and transient. My purest and most dis- 
interested actions could not stand the scrutiny 
of Thine eye. The holiest day I ever spent, 
were I to be judged by it, would condemn 
me. 

O Thou who " searchest Jerusalem with 
lighted candles," do Thou " search my heart." 
Bring me to the publican's place of peniten- 
tial sorrow, exclaiming, in self-renouncing 
humility, " God be merciful to me a sinner !" 



FOR DEEPER VIEWS OF SELF. 



67 



I would seek to make a more entire and 
undivided surrender of all I am and have to 
Thee. Give me such an awful and affecting 
sense of my vileness, that I may never feel 
safe but when close by the atoning Fountain, 
drawing out of it hourly supplies. May mine 
be a daily heart and self and sin crucifixion— 
an eternal severance from those bosom traitors 
which have so long separated between me 
and my God. Make me more zealous for Thy 
honor and glory — " Cleanse Thou the thoughts 
of my heart, by the inspiration of thy Holy 
Spirit" — "Let no iniquity obtain dominion 
over me." But may it be my daily ambition 
to become more like to Thee, reflecting more 
of the image, and imbibing more of the spirit, 
of my Divine Redeemer, that thus the atmos- 
phere of holiness and of heaven may be dif- 
fused all around me. May my own soul be 
pervaded with lofty and purified aspirations. 
May I be enabled to exhibit to the world the 
felt happiness of close walking with God. 

And do Thou, gracious Father, " send forth 



68 THE MOKNLNG WATCHES. 

thy light and thy truth" to a darkened world. 
May Thine own ancient people be speedily 
gathered in with the fulness of the Gentile 
nations, that all ends of the earth may see the 
salvation of God. 

Bless all my dear friends, near or distant. 
May they have the heritage of those that fear 
Thy name. Defend them now by thy mighty 
power, and at last number them with thy 
saints in glory everlasting. Amen. 

"cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning, 



SbixUntlt itnrwing* 



OR BRIGHTER VIEWS OF JESUS, 



"That I may know Him." — Phil. iii. 10. 

Blessed Jesus ! — Sun of my soul ! — Light 
of my life ! — do Thou shine upon me this 
morning with the " brightness of Thy rising." 
May I enjoy this day union and communion 
with Thee. May a sense of Thy favor per- 
vade all its duties, sanctify its blessings, and 
lighten its trials. May it be to me the sweet- 
est and holiest of all thoughts, that Thou art 
ever with me — that, though unseen to the eye 
of sense, the eye of faith can discern Thy 
gracious presence and the manifestations of 
Thy nearness and love. May the realized as- 
surance, that Thou art thus at my side, dispel 
every misgiving, and dry every tear. May I 



70 



THE MORNING WATCHES. 



hear Thee, even now, saying unto me, " Lo, 
I am with you" — I am with you now — I shall 
be with you "alway" — and when the world 
is ended, "I will" that you "be with me 
where I am, that you may behold my glory !" 
O adorable Saviour, how sadly is Thy 
beauty obscured from my view, by reason of 
my own sin ! How feebly do I apprehend 
the mystery of Thy love — the glories of Thy 
person — the perfection of Thine atonement. 
Hide me in the clefts of the rock, and while 
there, "I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory." 
May every fresh glimpse of " the great love 
wherewith Thou hast loved me" rebuke the 
lukewarmness of my own. May I covet a 
closer walk with Thee. May my existence be 
one continued Emmaus journey — its hours 
passing joyously by, because happy in the 
presence and converse of a risen Redeemer. 
Blessed Jesus, " abide with me," for the day 
is "far spent." Let me walk with Thee in 
newness of life. May I breathe Thy spirit 
of holy submission — of cheerful obedience — 



FOR BRIGHTER VIEWS OF JESUS. 71 

of patience under injuries. May I not repine 
at bearing the cross, so meekly borne for me ; 
nor murmur at my trials, when I think of 
Thine. May I be enabled to make every 
lineament of Thy spotless character my daily 
study, so as gradually to be transformed, into 
the same image, from glory to glory — looking 
forward to that blessed time when I shall see 
Thee without one stain of remaining sin to 
dim the contemplation, and when I shall be 
permitted to bathe in the ocean of Thine eter- 
nal love. 

I thank Thee for the mercies of the bypast 
night. Give me to reckon every new day a 
fresh gift of Thy dying grace — to regard all 
its hours as redeemed hours — exery moment 
as " bought with a price." May these days, 
and hours, and moments, thus stamped with 
the cross, be consecrated more than ever to 
Thy praise. 

Again, I beseech Thee, " abide with me. 5 ' 
"Where Thou goest I will go, and where 
Thou dwellest I will dwell." Abide with me 



72 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

from morning to evening, and from evening 
to morning again. "Without Thee I cannot 
live" — " without Thee I dare not die." Liv- 
ing or dying, Lord, I would seek to be Thine. 
Forgive all my many sins, and when the 
feeble glimpses of a feeble love on earth are 
at an end, bring me at last to enjoy brighter 
views of Thee in glory everlasting. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 
FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST." 



FOE NEARER VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

" They shall hehold the land that is very far off." — ■ 
Isaiah xxxiii. 17. 

O God, in the multitude of Thy mercies I 
am again permitted to see the light of a 
new day. With another rising morn do 
Thou scatter all the clouds of sin and unbe- 
lief from my soul. Unfold to my view bright 
glimpses of Thyself — sweet foretastes of those 
joys which " eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard." 

Here, Lord, I have " no continuing city" — 

change is my portion in this the house of my 

pilgrimage — " I would not live alway." I 

am " willing rather to be absent from the 

body, and to be present with the Lord." 

Wean me from this uncertain world. Bring 

7 



71 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

me to live under the powers of a world to 
come. I rejoice to think of the happy 
myriads already in glory — a clothed in white 
robes, with palms in their hands" — safe in 
the presence of the Master they love, with 
every tear-drop wiped away. I rejoice to 
know that the blood and grace to which they 
owe their crowns are still free as ever. O 
may I be enabled, with some good measure 
of triumphant assurance, to say, " Henceforth 
there is laid up for one a crown of righteous- 
ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
shall give me at that day." May the thought 
of that endless, sinless, sorrowless immortal- 
ity reconcile me to all earth's severest disci- 
pline. Let me not murmur under the heaviest 
cross in the prospect of such a crown. Let 
me not refuse to pass cheerfully through the 
hottest furnace which is to refine and purify 
me for this "exceeding weight of glory;" 
but bear with calm equanimity whatever 
Thou seest meet to lay upon me. " Weej>- 



FOE NEAKER VIEWS OF HEAVED. 75 



ing may endure for a night, but joy cometli 
in the morning." 

Lord, grant that the approach of eternity 
may urge me to greater diligence in Thy ser- 
vice. May I have my loins girded and my 
lamp burning. May I spend each day, and 
this day, as if it were to be my last. When 
the shadows of evening gather around me, 
may I feel that I have spent a day for God. 
Nearer a dying hour — may it find me nearer 
heaven. 

What I ask for myself I would seek in be- 
half of all my beloved friends. Sprinkle 
each heart with the blood of the covenant. 
May every eye be directed to Jesus, and 
every footstep be pointing heavenward. 
Though severed from one another now, may 
we not be found gathered in different bun- 
dles on the great reaping-day of judgment. 

Lord, unite Thine own people more and 
more. Why should we be guilty of such sad 
estrangements, crossing and re-crossing one 
another on life's highway with alien and 



76 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

jealous looks, when professing to be sprinkled 
with the same blood, to bear the same name, 
and be heirs of the same inheritance ? Let 
me live near to Jesus, and then I shall live 
near all His people, looking forward to that 
blessed time when we shall see eye to eye, 
and heart to heart — no jarring or discordant 
note to mar the everlasting ascription of 
" blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, 
imto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and 
unto the Lamb, forever and ever." Amen. 

"cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning, 



titbit nt\ il0nting. 

FOR WEANEDNE3S FROM THE CREATURE. 

" There is none upon earth that I desire "besides Thee." — 
Ps. Ixxiii. 25. 

Lord, Thou blessed fountain of all hap- 
piness and joy, do Thou draw near to me this 
morning in Thy great mercy. All creature- 
comforts are emanations from Thee. Thy fa- 
vor is life — Thy displeasure is worse than 
death. In losing Thee, we lose our all — in 
having Thee, we can want nothing. 

1 have to acknowledge, with shame and 
confusion of face, that I have not thus been 
seeking my true enjoyment in Thee. I have 
been in pursuit of fleeting shadows, which 
one by one have eluded my grasp. I have 
been worshipping and serving the creature 

more than the Creator, who is " God over all, 

7# 



78 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

blessed for evermore." Lord, bring me to see 
that nothing short of Thyself can satisfy the 
longings and desires of my immortal nature. 
Wean me from what is perishable. Let me 
reverentially acquiesce in whatever means 
Thou mayest employ to bring my wandering 
heart back to Thee, O thou alone-satisfying 
portion of my soul. Rather, Lord, would I 
submit to the hardest discipline than listen to 
the withering words, " Ephraim is joined to 
idols : let him alone." Let me feel that Thy 
presence and love can compensate for the 
loss of all earthly joys. As prop after prop 
which has gladdened my pilgrimage totters 
and falls, may I know what it is to " dwell in 
the secret place of the Most High, and to 
abide under the shadow of the Almighty." 
As Thou art ever proclaiming over creature- 
confidence, " Dust thou art, and unto dust 
shalt thou return," may I know what it is to 
cleave to One who is better and surer than 
the nearest and dearest on earth — the Friend 
that never fails, and never wearies, and never 



FOR WEANEDSTESS FROM THE CREATURE. 79 

dies — " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and 
to-day, and forever.' 5 • 

Blessed Saviour, I devolve my every care 
on Thee. Thou art noting now on the throne 
the pangs and sorrows of every burdened 
heart. All other love is imperfect. All other 
sympathy is selfish but Thine. May my af- 
fections be consecrated to Thee. May it be 
my joy to serve Thee — my privilege to follow 
Thee, and, if need be, to suffer with 'Thee. 
May every cross lose its bitterness by having 
Thee at my side. May I feel that nothing but 
absence from Thee can create a real blank in 
my heart. Thy presence takes the sting 
from all afflictions, and imparts security in 
the midst of all troubles. Living or dying, 
may I be Thine. 

Sprinkle me this new morning with the 
blood of the covenant. May I feel all through- 
out the day the joy of being reconciled to 
God. May my heart be made a little sanctu- 
ary of praise. May I breathe the atmosphere 
of heaven. May God himself be so enthroned 



80 THE MOENING WATCHES. 

in my affections, that I may be enabled to say, 
in comparison with'Him, of all that the world 
can give, "There is none upon the earth that 
I desire besides Thee." 

Heavenly Father, I leave all that belongs 
to me to Thee- — " Undertake Thou for them." 
Bless them and make them blessings. " Hide 
them under the shadow of thy wings' 5 until 
earth's " calamities be overpast." Hear this 
my morning supplication ; and when thou 
hearest, forgive. And all I ask is for Jesus 5 
sake. Amen. 



CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 
FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST." 



FOE LOWLINESS OF MINB. 

"He giveth grace unto the hunVoie." — 1 Pet. v. 5. 

O God, Thou art "the high and the lofty 
One who inhabiteth eternity. 55 There is no 
being truly great but Thee. All other excel- 
lence and glory is derived — Thine is unde- 
rived. All else is finite — Thine is infinite. 
The burning seraph nearest Thy throne is the 
humblest of all Thy creatures, because he 
gets the nearest view of the majesty of Thy 
glory. 

Lord, fill my soul this morning with suita- 
ble views of Thy greatness, and a humbling 
estimate of my own nothingness. I would lie 
low at Thy feet — in wonder and amazement 
that dust and ashes should be permitted to 



82 THE MORNING- WATCHES. 

approach, that Being whom angels worship 
with folded wings, and in whose sight the 
very " heavens are not clean." Repress every 
proud, self-glorying imagination. Let me 
feel I cannot abase myself enough in thy 
presence. " Lord, I am vile ; what can I an- 
swer Thee?" My best thoughts, how pol- 
luted ! — my best services, how imperfect ! — 
my best affections, how lukewarm ! — my best 
prayers, how cold ! — my best hours, were I 
judged by them, how would I be condemned ! 
I desire to take refuge at the cross of a cru- 
cified Saviour. Here, Lord, give me that 
grace Thou hast promised to the lowly. Self- 
renouncing and sin-renouncing, I would seek 
to be exalted only in Jesus, crying out " Q-od 
be merciful to me a sinner !" In broken-heart- 
edness of soul, I mourn the past. Distrustful 
of the future, I look only to Thee. Full of my 
own unworthiness, I turn to the infinitely wor- 
thy One. I seek to be washed in His blood — 
sanctified by His Spirit — guided by His coun- 
sel — depending on Him for every supply of 



FOB LOWLINESS OF MIND. 83 

grace — and feeling that without Him I must 
perish. 

May I take the humility and gentleness of 
Jesus as my pattern. Like Him, may I be 
meek and lowly in heart. Give me grace to 
avoid ostentation and pride, haughtiness and 
vanity, envy and uncharitableness. " In low- 
liness of mind, may I esteem others better 
than myself." Let me realize every moment 
that I am a pensioner on Divine bounty — 
that I am alike " for temporals and spirituals" 
dependent on Thee — and that it well becomes 
me to be " clothed with humility." O let me 
meekly and submissively lose my own will in 
Thine, in childlike teachableness, saying — 
" What wilt Thou have me to do ?" May no 
murmur escape my lips at Thy dealings. 
May this lowliness of spirit lead me rather to 
wonder at thy sparing mercy, that the great 
and holy Being I have provoked so long by 
my rebellion has not " cut me down." 

Bless all connected to me by endearing 
bonds. May nature's ties be made doubly 



84 THE M6RNING WATCHES. 

strong by those of covenant grace. Bless 
Thy cause and kingdom in the world. May 
Thy Spirit descend " like rain upon the mown 
grass, and showers that water the earth." 

I commit myself unto Thee, and to the 
word of Thy grace. Guide me this day by 
Thy counsel. May I spend it as if it were to 
be my last. And when my last day does ar- 
rive, may it be to me the eve of a happy eter- 
nity. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. 

"cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning, 
for in thee do i trust." 



%tantitt\ Pitting* 

FOR SIMPLICITY OF FAITH. 

" Only believe." — Mark v. 36. 

eternal, ever-blessed Jehovah — Foun- 
tain of all light — Source of all happiness — 
" God of all grace" — look down upon me 
this morning with that love which " Thou 
bearest to Thine own," as I venture anew into 
Thy sacred presence. Let me enjoy a sweet 
season of fellowship with Thee. Let the 
world be shut out, and may I feel alone with 
God. " Under the shadow of Thy wings 
would I rejoice." 

1 come in the nothingness of the creature, 
standing alone in the fulness of Jesus. I 
come, " just as I am, without one plea" — as a 
sinner, and as the " chief of sinners'* — to 



86 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

Thee, Thou almighty Saviour. I seek to dis- 
own all creature-confidence, and, with all the 
burden of my guilt, to cast myself, for time 
and for eternity, at Thy feet. u Lord, save 
me, else I perish." I cannot stand in myself. 
I can stand only in Him who has stood so wil- 
ling a Surety for me — who is still at the 
right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, 
presenting my name, and my prayers, and 
my plea, before the throne. I have no other 
confidence, and I need no other. Jesus, I am 
complete in Thee. Let me not look inwardly 
on myself, where there is everything to sink 
me in despondency and dismay ; but let me 
look with the undivided and unwavering eye 
of faith to Thy bleeding sacrifice. I rejoice 
to think of the many robes in the Church 
triumphant Thy blood has already made 
white. I rejoice to know that the same blood 
is free as ever — the same invitation is ad- 
dressed as ever — the promise and the Prom- 
iser remain " faithful" as ever — frHim that 
cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." A 

j 



FOE SIMPLICITY OF FAITH. 87 

Lord, I come — I plead Thy word. I come, 
irrespective of all I am, and all I have been. 
Magnify Thy grace in me. Show me my ut- 
ter beggary and wretchedness by nature — 
that every step to glory is a step of grace ; 
and while, with childlike faith, I rest on the 
finished work of Jesus, may I have the same 
simple trust and confidence in all His deal- 
ings towards me. May I feel that the Shep- 
herd of Israel cannot lead me wrong — that 
His own way must be the safest and the best. 
Lord, " undertake Thou for me" — " I w r ill fol- 
low Thee to prison and to death." Take me 
— lead me — use me, as Thou seest good. If 
I need chastisement, give me chastisement. 
If I need rebuke, let me not repine under the 
rod. Let me trust a Father's word — a Father's 
love — a Father's discipline. " Though Thou 
slay me, yet will I trust in Thee." 

And as for myself, so for all dear to me. I 
pray that it may please Thee, of Thine in- 
finite mercy, to visit them with Thy salvation 
— to guide them by Thy counsel — to overrule 



88 THE MORNING- WATCHES. 

all life's changes, and vicissitudes, and trials 
for their well-being, and at last to bring them 
safe to Thine eternal kingdom, through Jesus 
Christ — to whom, with Thee, O Father, and 
Thee, O eternal Spirit, three in one in cove- 
nant for our redemption, be ascribed all bless- 
ing, and honor, and glory, and praise, world 
without end. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



■ f to*tttn-first Iteming, 

FOE CONSISTENCY OF WALK. 

"Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." — Col. i. 1C. 

O Lord, Thou art the heart-searching and 
the rein- trying God. To Thee all hearts are 
open — from Thee no secrets are hid. Cleanse 
Thou the thoughts of my heart this day, by 
the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit. I would 
seek to begin its hours with Thee. May all 
its business and employments be perfumed 
with the fragrance of " the morning sacri- 
fice/' 

O Thou great origin and end of all things, 
be Thou to me the Alpha and the Omega of 
my daily being. May I feel existence to be 
a blank without Thee. May I feel that I can 
only be truly happy when a sense of Thy 

8* 



90 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

favor, and friendship, and love is sweetly in- 
termingled with life's duties — thus lessening 
every burden — hallowing every trial — dimin- 
ishing every cross ! 

I come to Thee once more, an unworthy 
sinner, to cast myself at my Saviour's feet. 
What am I, that Thou shouldst have borne 
with me so long ! The axe " laid at the root 
of the trees" might long ago have cut me 
down ; but I, a guilty cumberer, am still 
spared. The retrospect of existence, while a 
retrospect of patience and forbearance on 
Thy part, is one of mournful rebellion and in- 
gratitude on mine. I have had a "name to 
live," but how much spiritual death in my 
best frames ! I have had a form of godli- 
ness ; how little have I lived out and acted 
out its power ! More careful have I been to 
appear to be a Christian than really to be a 
Christian. How much unevenness in my 
walk — how much proclaimed and professed 
by the lip has been undone and denied in the 
life ! 



FOR CONSISTENCY OF WALK. 91 

I come this morning to ask anew for mercy 
to pardon, and grace to help me. Especially 
do Thou give me the grace of a holy consis- 
tency, doing all for Thy glory, having bold 
ness to speak for Thee in the world. May 
my walk and conversation be the living ev- 
idence and expression of the sincerity and 
reality of the inner life. 

For this end may I live more on Jesus. 
May my life be " hid with Christ in God." 
May I grow more and more out of myself, 
and into my living Head. Self-humbled and 
self-emptied, may I be ever resorting to the 
all-fulness of an all-sufficient Saviour. May 
this be my habitual feeling — " Without Him 
I can do nothing." May this be my constant 
prayer — "Help me, Saviour, or I die." 

May I be enabled this day, in His strength, 
to do something for God. However lowly 
my lot, however humble my abilities, may I 
feel, Lord, that Thou hast work for me in 
Thy vineyard. Let me not bury my talent in 
the earth ; may I " occupy it till Thou come," 



92 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

that " Thou mayest receive thine own with 
usury. 55 

Have mercy on Thy whole Church. Pour 
out on all its members and office-bearers the 
spirit of meekness and zeal, of power and 
love, and of a sound mind. May " Holiness 
to the Lord 55 be written on its portals ! 

Hasten the blessed period when the love 
of Jesus, being enthroned in every heart, and 
every Church, " we all shall be one. 55 And 
all I ask is for the Redeemer^ sake. Amen. 



CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 
FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST." 



®to*nts-mfftt& Darning* 

FOE SINGLENESS OF EYE. 

" This one thing I do."— Phil. iii. 13. 

My Father who art in heaven, teach me, in 
childlike faith and confidence, to draw near 
this morning to Thy throne of grace. Vouch- 
safe me the blessed influences of Thy Holy 
Spirit, that I may wait on Thee undisturbed 
by worldly distractions, and enter on the du- 
ties of another day with my mind " stayed 
on God." 

Blessed Jesus ! — Thou who didst so freely 
give Thyself a ransom for many — save me, 
else I perish ! I have no peace but in Thy 
pardoning, reconciling love. May Thy blood 
and righteousness be to me " a glorious 
dress, 5 ' arrayed in which I may now and ever 



94: THE MORNING WATCHES. 

stand fearless and undismayed. I bless 
Thee, O God, if I have in any degree felt the 
preciousness of the Saviour, and His adapta- 
tion to all the wants and weaknesses of my 
sinful, and sorrowful, and tempted nature. 1 
thank Thee if Thou hast already hidden me 
in the clefts of the smitten Rock. My prayer 
is, that Thou mayest keep me there — that I 
may lean upon Jesus more than ever, and 
seek my happiness more exclusively in His 
service. May I every morning be drawn 
more closely by the cords of His love, and be 
led to fight more faithfully under His ban- 
ner. 

O for greater singleness of aim ! — more 
self-emptying and self-abasing — that He may 
be all in all ! Lord, I am conscious often of 
mingled motives, that would not stand the 
test of Thy pure eye and Thy holy Word. 
How often do I forfeit the joys of assurance 
by admitting rival claimants to the throne of 
my affections. How often are the surpassing 
interests and glories of eternitj^ dimmed and 



FOR SINGLENESS OF EYE. 95 

obscured by the engrossing things of time 
and of sense ! How mixed with imperfection, 
and earthliness, and self-seeking are my best 
attempts to serve Thee ! If weighed in the 
balance, how would my holiest services be 
found wanting ! \ 

Give me more of this unity and simplicity 
of purpose. Give me to make salvation 
more the one thing needful. Let all other 
love be subordinated to Thine. Do Thou be 
my " chiefest joy." May Thy service be my 
delight. May my heart become a little sanc- 
tuary, whence the incense of praise, and love, 
and thanksgiving is ascending continually. 
May it glow w T ith holy zeal to promote Thy 
cause, and testify of Thy grace. Remem- 
bering all that Thou hast done for me, may I 
be animated to make a more entire -consecra- 
tion and surrender of all I am and have to 
Thy glory. 

Let me feel that whatever my rank, or sta- 
tion, or circumstances are, I have some mis- 
sion to perform for Thee. How often dost 



96 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

Thou choose " the foolish things of the world 
to confound the things that are mighty !" Let 
me not think my talent too trifling to trade 
upon. May I " occupy it till my Lord 
comes." Let me not squander fleeting mo- 
ments, or forego fleeting opportunities. " The 
night cometh, wherein none of us can work." 
Enable me now, bowing at Thy mercy-seat, 
to replenish anew my empty vessel with the 
oil of Thy grace, that the lamp of faith may 
be kept burning brightly all the day. All 
that I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 
FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST." 






®to*wta-tf[M& Hunting* 

FOR FILIAL NEARNESS. 

" Ah"ba, IT at her." — Rom. viii. 15. 

Most blessed God, I rejoice that I can look 
up to Thee, the mightiest of all Beings, and 
call Thee by that name, which may well dis- 
pel all misgivings, and hush all disquietudes 
— "My Father who art in heaven." 

Father, I have sinned against heaven and 

in Thy sight. The kindest of earthly parents 

could not so long have borne with ingratitude 

and waywardness like mine. Long ere now 

Thou mightest righteously have driven me an 

exile and a cast-away from Thy presence. 

But the voice of parental mercy is not silenced. 

The hand of parental patience and love is 

"stretched out still." In the midst of de- 

9 



98 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

served wrath, this is Thine own gracious dec- 
laration, "I will be a Father unto you !" 

I mourn my grievous departures — my repeat- 
ed declensions — my heinous ingratitude. Oh, 
let me no longer live in this state of guilty 
estrangement — forfeiting all the joys of a Fa- 
ther's tenderness, the sunshine of a Father's 
smile. May I know what it is for the soul, 
orphaned, and portionless, and friendless by 
nature, to repose in the security of Thy cov- 
enant-love. May I be enabled to enjoy more 
and more, every day, holy filial nearness to 
the mercy-seat — there unburdening into Thine 
ear all my wants and trials — my sorrows and 
perplexities — my backslidings and sins. Give 
me grace to bow with childlike submission to 
a Father's will — to bear without a murmur a 
Father's rod — to hear in every dealing, joyous 
or sorrowful, a Father's voice — and when 
death comes, to have every fear dispelled by 
listening to a Father's summons — " To-day 
slialt thou be with me in paradise." 

Jesus, Thou blessed Elder Brother! "in 



FOR FILIAL NEARNESS. 99 

whom the whole family in heaven and earth 
is named," may I be enabled to imitate* Thine 
example of holy resignation to Thy Father's 
will. May the cup of bitterest earthly sorrow 
be taken into my hands with Thine own 
breathing of devout submission — "This cup 
which Thou givest me to drink, shall I not 
drink it? Even so, Father, for so it seems 
good in Thy sight." It is my comfort, Mess- 
ed Lord, to know, that while the best of earth- 
ly parents may err, Thou, the unerring God, 
never canst. In Thy most mysterious deal- 
ings there is wisdom. In Thy roughest voice 
there is mercy. 

Adorable Redeemer, all these filial bless- 
ings and adoption-privileges I owe to Thee. 
It is Thy precious blood-shedding which has 
" set me among the children" — it is that 
which still keeps me there. Anew this day 
would I repair to Thy cross — anew would I 
supplicate that the Holy Spirit, the Divine 
Comforter, would be sent forth into my heart, 
enabling me to cry, "Abba, Father." May 



100 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

the thought of this blessed affiance in Thee, 
support me amid life's fitful changes and 
transient friendships, and may I be enabled 
to dwell with holy delight on that glorious 
time, when, no longer an exiled pilgrim in a 
strange land, I shall be received at the gates 
of glory with a Father's welcome — " Son, 
thou art ever with me, and all that I have is 
thine." 

I commend myself and all near and dear 
to me, this day, to Thy fatherly care and 
keeping. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. 
Amen. 

u CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



FOR RESTORATION TO FAVOR. 

"Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation." — Ps. li. 12. 

God, another morning has dawned upon 
me. " Thou better Sun of righteousness" — 
with the brightness of Thy rising, may all the 
shadows of guilt and sin be dispersed. I 
come, weak and weary, guilty and heavy-la- 
den, to Thee, beseeching Thee to bend Thy 
pitying eye upon me — to deal not with me as 
I have deserved, nor reward me according to 
mine iniquity. Blessed Jesus, look upon me. 
In Thee may I be pitied, pardoned, and for- 
given ! 

1 have erred and strayed from Thy way as 
a lost sheep. I have wandered from the home 
of my God. I have been seeking my happi- 

9* 



102 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

ness in what is shadowy and unreal. The 
world and its delusive hopes have been pre- 
ferred to Thee. My heart, which ought ever 
to be a little altar and sanctuary of praise, 
has burned with false incense. Thy love and 
glory have not maintained their paramount 
place in my affections. I have righteously 
forfeited " the joys of Thy salvation." My 
only marvel is, that, as a wandering star, Thou 
hast not left me to drift onwards to the black- 
ness of darkness forever. O leave me not to 
perish ! I mourn my wanderings. In leaving 
Thee, I feel I have left my Best Friend. I 
have caused an aching void in this heart, 
which the world, with all its joys and riches 
and pleasures, can never fill. I cannot have 
one hour of happiness, if mingled with the 
thought that I am estranged from Thee, my 
God. Blissful hours of Thy favor I once en- 
joyed, come sorrowfully to my remembrance ; 
and, though the cup of earthly happiness be 
full to the brim, I have still to breathe the 
prayer — " Oh that it were with me as in 



FOR RESTORATION TO FAVOR. 108 

months past, when the candle of the Lord did 
shine !" 

" Restore unto me the joy of Thy salva- 
tion." Leave me not in this state of distance 
and alienation. " O Lord, I beseech Thee, 
deliver my soul." Snap these chains of earth- 
liness that are still binding me to the dust, 
that, on the wings of faith, I may soar up- 
wards, and find rest and quietude where 
alone it can be found — in Thy renewed love 
and favor. May past backslidings drive me 
more to Thy grace. Nothing in myself, may 
I find and feel that my all in all is in Thee. 
Discover to me my own emptiness, and the 
overflowing fulness of Jesus. May I every 
day see more of His matchless excellencies— 
His incomparable loveliness — the sweets of 
His service— that I may never feel tempted 
to wander from His fold, and carefully avoid 
all that would risk the forfeiture of that favor 
which indeed is " life." 

Lord, let me know this day something of 
this happiness. Let me not be content with 



104 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

the name to live. Let religion be with me a 
real thing— let it be everything ;— life-influ- 
encing, sin-subduing, self-renouncing. Let 
me diffuse all around me the happy glow of 
a spirit that feels at peace with God. 

And now, Lord, what wait I for ? " My 
hope" for myself, my friends, and all for 
whom I ought to pray, " is in Thee." Listen 
to these my supplications ; and all I ask is 
for Jesus' sake. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



f hmttjHftlr flaming, 

FOE A PILGRIM SPIRIT. 

" And confessed that they "were strangers and pilgrims 
on the earth." — Heb. xi. 13. 

O God, again, in the multitude of Thy 
mercies, Thou art permitting me to approach 
the footstool of Thy throne. I am another 
day nearer death — oh, may I be a day nearer 
Thee ! "With a new morning's dawn may I 
hear the pilgrim summons — " Arise, for this 
is not your rest." Ere I mingle with the 
world, give me to feel I am not 6/* it, but born 
from above, and/br above ; and cherishing 
more and more of a pilgrim spirit, may my 
prayer and watchword be — "I desire a better 
country." 

Lord, I bless Thee for the rich provision 
Thou hast made for the. wilderness journey — 



106 THE MORNING- WATCHES. 

for all Thy mercies, temporal, providential, 
and spiritual. Forbid that the manifold gifts 
of Thy love should draw me away from Thy- 
self, the bountiful Giver, or obliterate the 
solemn impression — u I am a stranger with 
Thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were." 
May I " use the world without abusing -it." 
By the varied discipline of Thy providence, 
may I be led to feel that all my well-springs 
are in Thee. May the world's fascinations 
be becoming more powerless — sin more hated 
— holiness more loved — heaven more realized 
— God more " the exceeding joy" of my soul. 
Driven from all creature-stays and earthly 
refuges, may Jesus be the prop and staff of 
rny pilgrimage. When the ^ world is bright, 
may I rest upon Him, and seek that He sanc- 
tify my prosperity. When the wilderness is 
dreary, and the way dark, may He hallow ad- 
versity. When friends are removed, may I 
feel that I have One left more faithful than 
the best of all earthly friends; and when 
death comes, and the pilgrim warfare ceases, 



i-^. 



FOR A PILGRIM SPIRIT. 107 

leaning confidingly on that same arm, may I 
enter the pilgrim's rest. 

adorable Saviour! — Thou who wast once 
Thyself a pilgrim — the lonely, weary, home- 
less, afflicted One — who hadst often no arm 
to lean upon, and no voice to cheer Thee — an 
outcast wanderer and sojourner in Thine own 
creation — I rejoice to think that Thou hast 
trodden all this wilderness-world before me — 
that Thou knowest its dreariest paths. I 
take comfort in the assurance that there is at 
the right hand of the Majesty on high, a Fel- 
low-Sufferer, who has drunk of every " brook 
in the way" — shed every tear of earthly sor- 
row — heaved every sigh of earthly suffering 
— and who, being Himself the " tried and 
tempted One," is able and willing to succor 
every pilgrim who is tried and tempted too. 

1 beseech Thee this day to look down in 
great kindness on all my beloved friends. 
Seal to them a saving interest in Thy great 
salvation. Wash them all in Thy blood — 
sanctify them all by Thy Spirit. May not 



108 THE MOEXIXG WATCHES. 

one be wanting on i; the clay when Thou 
rnakest up Thy jewels." 

Compassionate a fallen world. Thy Church 
is slumbering — the enemy is all vigilant — 
souls are perishing. Arise, Lord, and plead 
Thine own cause. Promote greater unity, 
and love, and concord among Thine own peo- 
ple. Let us be nearer Jesus, and then we 
shall be nearer one another. Give us all 
more of the single eye to Thy glory. Make us 
more self-sacrificing — more heavenly-minded 
— more Saviour-like. And all I ask is for 
Jesus' sake. Amen. 

"CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOYI>"G-K[XDXES3 is the morning, 



®to*wt2-si*t|j[ Hunting* 

FOR PREPARATION FOR DEATH. 

" Prepare to meet thy God." — Amos iy. 12. 

O eternal, Bverlasting God — Author of 
my being — my continual, unwearied Bene- 
factor — I desire to come anew this morning 
into Thy presence, thanking Thee for Thy 
sparing mercies. Instead of making my last 
night's pillow a pillow of death, I am again, 
among the living to praise Thee. O that I were 
enabled to live every day, and to rise every 
morning, as if it were to be my last, as if my 
next waking were to be in the morning of im- 
mortality ! 

Lord, how little am I influenced and im- 
pressed by the solemn records of death all 

around me. Friend after friend is departing 

10 



110 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

— the circle of acquaintance is narrowed. 
The proclamation is ever sounding with fresh 
emphasis in my ears, " Be ye also ready ;" 
and jet how prone to disregard the solemn 
monitions ! how apt to peril my preparation 
on the peradventures of a dying hour ! Blessed 
God, my prayer is, that I may have my loins 
girded, and my lamp burning. Let me not 
wait to have my vessel replenished till the 
voice of the Bridegroom be heard, and I am 
summoned to meet Him. May I now so re- 
pose my every confidence in Jesus, that death 
may be disarmed of its sting, — that the hour 
which to the unwary and unwatchful is one 
of darkness and terror, may be to me the 
eve of the blessed Sabbath of eternity — the 
threshold and the portal of a world of end- 
less joy. 

Lord, give me to feel that " the sting of death 
is sin" — that, not till I get the blessed sense 
of all my sins cancelled and forgiven in the 
blood of the Surety, can I be ready for my 
departure. " To me to live may it be Christ," 



FOR PREPARATION FOR DEATH. Ill 

that so "to die" may be great and eternal 
"gain." Let me be enabled, by faith in 
death's great Conqueror, to cultivate that holy 
familiarity with a dying hour, that I may be 
enabled, when it comes, to fall sweetly " asleep 
in Jesus," and to hear His voice of love say- 
ing, "It is I, be not afraid." 

Look in mercy on the multitudes who are 
content to live on, unmeet and unprepared 
for their great change. Awaken them to a 
sense of their guilt and peril. Show them 
their affecting need of Jesus — that time is 
wasting and eternity is hasting — that, "as the 
tree falleth, so must it lie." 

I pray for the heathen who are perishing 
for lack of knowledge. Countenance and 
bless all the efforts of Thy Church to dissem- 
inate among them the gospel of the grace of 
God. May Thy missionary servants, who 
have gone with their lives in their hands to 
the dark places of the earth, experience a 
peace which the world knows not of. May 
they have many souls as their glory and 



112 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

joy and crown at the clay of Christ's appear- 
ing. 

O give us all grace, in our varied stations 
and relations in life, to do something for 
Thee. Let us not bury or hide our talents ; 
but, as members of a ransomed priesthood, 
may we lay our time, our opportunities, our 
substance, on Thine altar, and seek to " show 
forth the praises of Him who hath called us 
out of darkness into His marvellous light." 
And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen. 



"cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning, 
for in thee do i trust." 



ftoantj-sttottttlj Hunting* 

FOR A JOYFUL RESURRECTION. 

"Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust." — Is. xxvi. 19. 

Gracious God, Thou hast again dispersed 
the darkness of another natural night. Every 
rising earthly sun is bringing me nearer the 
gladdening clay-break of immortality. O 
grant that, when the trumpet shall sound and 
the dead shall be raised, I may be ready to 
listen undismayed to the summons, " Behold, 
the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet 
Him." 

My prayer is, that I may now be made par- 
taker of the blessedness of the first resurrec 
tion from a death of sin. As one "alive from 
the dead," may I rise and walk with a living 

Saviour " in newness of life," that thus I may 

10* 



114 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

at last share also in the more glorious resur- 
rection of His ransomed saints, when His 
" dead men shall live," and together with His 
body "they shall arise," obeying the joyous 
mandate of their risen Head, " Awake and 
sing, ye that dwell in the dust." 

Blessed Jesus, I do rejoice to think of Thine 
own triumphant rising from the tomb. I re- 
joice to be able to visit in thought Thy va- 
cant sepulchre, and to hear the glad tidings, 
" He is not here, He is risen !" "The Lord 
is risen !" — it is the blessed pledge and earnest 
of my own redemption from the power of the 
grave — that " because Christ lives, I shall 
live also." O may " my life be now hid with 
Christ in God, so that when Christ, who is my 
life, shall appear, I may also appear with Him 
in glory." Keep me ever in the frame I 
should wish to be found in when my Lord 
cometh. May the lamp of faith and love be 
ever brightly burning. May it never be mine 
to be awoke, by the midnight cry, to the 
awful consciousness, " My lamp has gone out." 



FOR A JOYFUL RESURRECTION. 115 

May I rather be among the number of u wait- 
ing servants," who, when their Lord " eometh 
and knocketh," are ready to " open unto Him 
immediately." 

Do Thou impart to all near and dear to me 
this day the same spiritual and eternal bless- 
ings I ask for myself. May they, too, be 
united to Jesus — " planted in the likeness of 
His death," that they may be found also " in 
the likeness of His resurrection." May we 
all seek to bear an increasingly holy resem- 
blance in love one to another, and to our 
great living Head, in whom the whole family 
in heaven and earth is named ; and if for a 
little while separated by death, may we, on 
the great day of His appearing, be reunited 
in bonds that shall know no dissolution. 

Hasten that blessed time when our world, 
so long groaning and travailing in pain, shall 
put on her resurrection, attire, and exult in 
the glorious liberty of Thy children. " Come, 
Lord Jesus : come quickly." " Why tarry 
the wheels of Thy chariot?" 



116 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

Lord, I commend myself to Thee. Pre- 
pare me for living, prepare me for dying. 
Let me live near Thee in grace now, that I 
may live with Thee in glory everlasting. 
Let me be reconciled submissively to endure 
all that Thy sovereign wisdom and love see 
meet to appoint — looking forward, through 
the tears and sorrows of a weeping world, to 
that better day-spring, when " I shall behold 
Thy face in righteousness," and be " satisfied, 
when I awake, in Thy likeness." And all I 
ask is for the Redeemer's sake. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



®to*«t2-ng^& Denting, 

FOR THE CONQUEST OF SATAN. 

"The God of peace shell "bruise Satan under your feet 
shortly." — Ron. xvi. 20. 

O God, I bless Thee for the returning mer- 
cies of a new day. " I laid me down and 
slept ; I awaked : for the Lord sustained me. 
I will not be afraid of ten thousands that have 
set themselves against me." Vouchsafe me, 
I beseech Thee, thy fatherly protection and 
blessing, that all my thoughts may be ordered 
by Thee, and all my plans and purposes over- 
ruled by Thee, and all my joys hallowed by 
Thee, and all my sorrows sanctified by Thee. 
Keep me near Thyself. While I seek to 
realize, every hour of this day, the power and 
subtilty of my spiritual adversaries, may I 
rejoice in the assurance that greater is He 



118 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

that is with me than all they that can be 
against me — that, "though an host should 
encamp against me," with God on my side, 
"I need fear no evil." 

I mourn the prevalence of sin, both in the 
world and in my own heart. Thy creation 
still groans and travails under its power. 
" The Prince of the power of the air still 
works in the children of disobedience." "The 
whole world lieth in the Wicked One." Often 
is Satan still " desiring to have me, that he 
might sift me as wheat"- — "standing at my 
right hand to resist me" — to oppose my plea 
and damage my cause, — sending some " thorn 
in the flesh to buffet me" — marring my peace, 
disturbing my joy, and hindering and imped- 
ing my spiritual growth and advancement. 
But, Lord, it is my comfort to know that there 
is in heaven a "stronger than the strong 
man" — that no time can impair or diminish 
the comfort of the assurance, " /"have prayed 
for thee, that thy faith fail not." When Sa- 
tan assaults, blessed Jesus, I will think of 



FOE THE CONQUEST OF SATAN. 119 

Thy continual intercession. " Thy hand is 
never shortened, that it cannot save. 7 ' 

May I ever have grace given me to " resist 
the devil, that he may flee from me" — to 
keep watchfully guarded every loophole of 
the heart. May I abstain from all appear- 
ance of evil, avoiding every place and every 
company where his unholy influences are 
likely to prevail. " Lead me not into temp- 
tation," and, if tempted, Lord, make a way 
of escape, that I may be able to bear it. 

O Thou adorable Intercessor within the 
veil, it is my comfort to know that, in Thy 
season of humiliation on earth, Thou wert 
" not ignorant of his devices." Thou didst 
also, of him, " suffer, being tempted," and 
Thou art therefore the more able " to succor 
them that are tempted." I rejoice to think 
that, exalted on Thy mediatorial throne, Thou 
shalt reign until Satan and every other en- 
emy be put under Thy feet, and until the 
kingdoms of this world (so long usurped by 



120 THE MORNING- WATCHES. 

him) shall become the " one kingdom of our 
Lord and of His Christ." 

Heavenly Father, take this day all my be- 
loved friends under Thy guardian care. May 
they dwell in the secret place of the Most 
High, and abide under the shadow of the Al- 
mighty. May they, too, be able to take up 
the triumphant challenge— " God is for us, 
who can be against us ?" and when their 
earthly work and warfare is accomplished, 
may we all meet in that sinless world where 
Satan's seat no more can be found, and Sa- 
tan's temptations shall no longer be felt or 
feared. And all that I ask is for Jesus' sake. 
Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



f tonttg-tuntlj Hunting, 

FOR THE OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT. 

" I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." — Joel ii. 28. 

O God, I desire this morning to approach 
with lowly reverence the footstool of Thy 
throne, adoring and praising Thee for the rest 
of the past night, and the comforts and bless- 
ings of a new day. O holy, blessed, eternal 
Trinity, three persons, one God, have mercy 
upon me, and grant me Thy benediction and 
love. 

Most blessed Spirit of all grace, more es- 
pecially would I at this time invoke Thy pres- 
ence and nearness. I acknowledge, with 
shame and confusion of face, how often I 
have grieved Thee by resisting Thy gracious 

influences. How often hast Thou pleaded 

11 



122 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

with me by the voice of Providence, and yet 
I have turned a deaf ear to Thy repeated 
warnings and remonstrances ! Thou hast 
spoken to me in prosperity, when the full cup 
demanded in return a heart full of gratitude. 
Thou hast spoken to me in adversity, when, 
by the emptied cup and the broken cistern, 
Thou wouldst have driven me from all earthly 
things, to the everlasting God Himself, as my 
only satisfying Portion. Thou hast spoken 
to me by the terrors of the law and by the 
tender accents of Gospel-love, and yet I have 
continued to u spend my money for that 
which is not bread, and my labor for that 
which satisfleth not." Long ere now I might 
have exhausted Thy patience. " It is of the 
Lord's mercies I am not consumed." 

But " take not, O gracious God, Thy Holy 
Spirit from me." Come, Thou blessed En- 
lightener, Quickener, Sanctifier, and inspire 
this dull, cold heart. Touched as with a live 
coal, may the flame of a holy love to Thee be 
rekindled on its altar, " Keturn, O Holy 



FOR THE OUTPOURING- OF THE SPIRIT. 123 

Dove, thou Messenger of rest," from the 
true ark of God. Give me grace to hate the 
sins which drove Thee away from this guilty 
breast. Breathe upon me, and say, " Peace 
be unto you; receive ye the Holy Ghost." 
Do Thou invigorate my languishing affections. 
May I realize my dependence on Thee for 
every pulsation of spiritual life. Without 
Thee I perish. 

While I pray for this Blessed Agent in be- 
half of my own soul, Lord, it is my earnest 
prayer that He may be poured out upon all 
flesh — that that time may soon come, when 
the rain of His gracious influences shall de- 
scend on a barren church and parched world. 
Hasten the Pentecost of the ■" latter day." 
Earth is at present but as the prophet's " val- 
ley of dry bones." Come, Thou blessed 
Spirit of all grace, " breathe upon these dry 
bones, that they may live." 

And may the same blessed and benign in- 
fluences be shed on every heart that is dear 
to me. The Spirit of the Lord is not strait- 



124 THE MOENING WATCHES. 

ened. O my Father in heaven, hast Thou 
not promised to give the Holy Spirit to them 
that ask Thee ? I pray that all my beloved 
friends may become members of that mys- 
tical body of which Jesus is the living Head, 
so that the oil of anointing grace, poured upon 
Him by the Spirit, and flowing down to the 
skirts of His garments, may be shared by His 
humblest and unworthiest members. O that 
each and all of our hearts may become living 
temples, in which the Holy Ghost dwells ! 
May nothing that is unholy find admission 
there, but, " sealed with that Holy Spirit of 
promise, the earnest of our inheritance," may 
we be daily and habitually living in the ex- 
pectation of eternal glory. Through Jesus 
Christ. Amen. 

11 CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



% \itih\\ Denting, 

FOR THE UNION OF THY PEOPLE. 

' ' That they all may "be one." — John xvii. 21. 

O God, Thou eternal Fountain of all excel- 
lence and glory !— through the one "new and 
living way" I desire this morning to approach 
Thee. Powerless in my own pleadings, I 
look up to the right hand of the throne of the 
Majesty in the heavens, to that " Prince who 
has power with God," and at all times " pre- 
vails." Guilty, I come to this guiltless Re- 
deemer. Diseased, I come to this great 
Physician. Outcast, I come to Him who has 
promised that He will by no means " cast 
out." May His presence always be with me. 
May I know Him, and believe in Him, and 

rejoice in Him. May I feel that I need no 

11* 



126 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

other Saviour — that He is all I require for 
life or for death — for time or for eternity. 

I rejoice to think of the glorious multitude 
around Thy throne — the trophies of Thy grace 
— already wearing the white robe and the 
immortal palm. I rejoice to think of the bless- 
ed unity which pervades their glorified ranks : 
no note of discord disturbing their lofty har- 
monies — all seeing eye to eye, and heart to 
heart. 

I lament the sad and mournful estrange- 
ment of Christian from Christian in Thy 
Church below — that so many, treading the 
same heavenly journey, with the same glori- 
ous portals in view, should be following sepa- 
rate and diverse footpaths — that so many 
brethren in the Lord, whose interchanges 
ought to be all love, should be looking coldly 
and censoriously on one another. How much 
ungodly jealousy, and heart-burning, and mu- 
tual recrimination, among Thy professing 
people ! How little of the spirit which of old 
provoked the testimony even of heathen gain- 



, , - ____ — _ — . — _ 

FOK THE UNION OF THY PEOPLE. 127 

sayers — " See how these Christians love one 
another !" O thou blessed "Author of peace 
and lover of concord," do Thou, in Thy mercy, 
pour out on Thy Church on earth, a greater 
spirit of unity, and brotherly-kindness, and 
charity. Do Thou in Thy mercy heal the 
bleeding wounds of Thy mystical body- — cast- 
ing over them the mantle of love. Bring us 
all, blessed Jesus, as individuals and as 
churches, nearer Thyself, and then shall we 
be nearer one another. It is because of our 
distance from Thee, the great Sun of Right- 
eousness, the Source of light and life and 
peace, that we, as wandering stars, are re- 
volving in such devious and distant orbits. 
Give us to feel that we are all members of one 
mighty family, of which Thou art the glorious 
Head — that, though following diverse tracks, 
we are sheep of the same pasture, owning the 
same " Chief Shepherd" — that, though en- 
rolled in different ranks, we are allies in the 
same great army, fighting under the banner 
of the same great Captain of salvation. O 



128 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

forbid that, in these "latter days" — in these 
times of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy, 
when " the enemy is coming in like a flood" 
— we should waste our strength on petty and 
puny dissensions ! May we be led to merge 
the few points in which we differ, in the many 
in which we can unite. 

Preserve me, good Lord, this day, from all 
uncharitableness. May I "judge not, that I 
be not judged." May I have Thy favor rest- 
ing upon me in all the day's duties, and Thy 
love softening and sanctifying all its trials. 
May all my beloved friends be one with me 
in Jesus — one now, and one in glory everlast- 
ing. Amen. 



" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



% \xx\i-itit Hunting* 

FOR THE COMING OF THY KINGDOM. 

" Thy kingdom come." — Luke xi. 2. 

O eternal, ever-blessed God, whose mer- 
ciful kindness is new to me every morning — 
give me throughout this day that peace which 
the world cannot give. As the beams of the 
material sun are lighting up anew my earthly 
chamber, may the inner chamber of my soul 
be illumined by a better and brighter radi- 
ance. Jesus ! Thou blessed Fountain of light, 
and life, and glory, do Thou disperse all the 
darkness of unbelief and sin. May Thy pres- 
ence and love hallow all my joys, and miti- 
gate and sanctify all my sorrows. 

Ere I enter on the day's duties, do Thou 
anew sprinkle the lintels and door-posts of my 



130 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

heart with. Thine own most precious blood ; 
may my inmost thoughts, and purposes, and 
desires, and affections be consecrated to that 
God whose property they are. May I have an 
increasing experience of the sweets of Thy 
favor, and friendship, and love. With Thee, 
blessed Lord, I am rich, whatever else I want ; 
without Thee, I am poor, though I have the 
wealth of worlds beside. Take what Thou wilt 
away — but take not Thyself. Nothing can fill 
and satisfy the longings of my immortal nature 
but Thee — all worldly happiness and creature 
joys are poor substitutes for the inexhaustible 
source of all joy. Let me know what it is, 
amid the wreck of earthly refuges and hopes, 
to exult in the persuasion, " The Lord liveth, 
and blessed be my rock ; and let the God of 
my salvation be exalted." 

While I pray that Thy kingdom may come 
in my own heart, I would especially pray for 
its extension throughout the world. Arise, O 
God, and let Thine enemies be scattered. 
May the blessed day soon arrive when a re- 



FOR THE COMING OF THY KINGDOM. 131 

joicing and emancipated world shall own no 
longer habitations of darkness and horrid 
cruelty — when Jew and Gentile shall wel- 
come the Prince of Peace to the Throne of 
Universal Empire — and " all ends of the 
earth shall see the salvation of God." " Come, 
Lord Jesus ; come quickly." Let the cry 
soon break over Thy now burdened Church, 
" Let us be glad and rejoice, for the marriage 
of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath 
made herself ready." Grant, Lord, that I 
may be in readiness to meet Thee. May my 
loins now be girded, and my lamp brightly 
burning, that, at the Bridegroom's summons, 
I may be able joyfully to respond, " Lo, this 
is my God ! I have waited for Him." 

Grant this day to all near and dear to me, 
as well as to myself, the special tokens of 
Thy blessing and love. Fold my beloved 
friends in the arms of Thy mercy. Teaching 
them to do Thy holy will, do Thou say of 
them and to them, " The same is my mother, 
and sister, and brother." Guide us all by Thy 



132 THE MORNING WATCHES. 

counsel here. May we feel that the way in 
which Thou art leading us is the kindest and 
the best that covenant love can devise ; and 
when our appointed time on earth is finished, 
do Thou receive us into everlasting habita- 
tions through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

And now, to God the Father, God the Son, 
and God the Holy Spirit, be ascribed, as is 
most due, all blessing, and honor, and glory, 
and praise, world without end. Amen. 

" CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, 



THE 



NIGHT WATCHES. 



" Sun of my soul ! thou Saviour dear, 
It is Dot Night if Thou be near ; 
Oh ! may no earth-born cloud arise, 
To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes 



i( 



illeepiog 



Wq\$ cf\h\H f o ir 1 J> e 



m&vi, 



Sqi 5 o y eohieil) 117 fije 



MOWttfil" 



Ps. cxxx. 6, 



'(B) JIB Jftgljt ^flttJlB. 



•» * » 



While the title of this second part indicates its 
design as a series of evening meditations, that title 
may be more peculiarly suggestive of those ex- 
periences of earthly sorrow, during which this has 
ever proved the most blessed solace — " I have re- 
membered thy name, Lord, in the night." 

May every reader be able -to make the assurance 
of the Psalmist his own — " The Lord will command 
His loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the 
night His song shall be with me." — (Ps. xlii. 8.) 

" When the soft dews of kindly sleep 
My wearied eyelids gently steep, 
Be my last thought how sweet to rest 
Forever on my Saviour's breast ! 



6 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

" Abide with me frdm morn till eve, 
For without Thee I cannot live : 
Abide with me when night is nigh, 
For without Thee I dare not die 1" 



ON THY GLORY. 

"From everlasting to everlasting thou art God." — 
Ps. xc. 2. 

My Soul ! Seek to fill thyself with thoughts 
of the Almighty ! Lose thyself in the im- 
penetrable tracts of His Glory ! " Canst 
thou by searching find out God ?" Can the 
animalcule fathom the ocean, or the worm 
scale the skies ? Can the finite grasp the In- 
finite — the mortal Immortality ? We can do 
no more than stand on the brink of the shore- 
less sea, and cry, " O the depth !" "From 
everlasting !" — shrouded in the great and aw- 
ful mystery of eternity ! Before one star re- 
volved in its sphere — before one angel moved 
his wing — God was! — the shadow of His own 



8 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

infinite presence filling all space. All time 
to Him is but as the heaving of a breath — 
the beat of a pulse — the twinkling of an eye. 
The Eternity of bliss, which is the noblest 
heritage of the creature, is in its nature pro- 
gressive. It admits of advance in degrees 
of happiness and glory. Not so with the 
Eternity of the Great Creator; He was as 
perfect before the birth of time as he will be 
when " time shall be no longer" — as infinitely 
glorious when He inhabited alone the soli- 
tudes of immensity, as He is now with the 
songs of angel and archangel sounding in His 
ears ! But " who can show forth all His praise ?" 
We can at best but lisp the alphabet of His 
Glory. Moses, who saw more of God than 
most, makes it still his prayer, "I beseech 
thee, show me Thy glory." Paul, who knew 
more of God than other men, prays still, "that 
I may know Him." " Our safest eloquence," 
says Hooker, " concerning Him, is our si- 
lence, when we confess without confession, 
that His glory is inexplicable." 



OX THY GLOKY. 9 

And is this the Being to whom I can look up 
with sweetest confidence, and call " My Far 
ther ?" Is it this Infinite One, whom " the 
Heaven of Heavens cannot contain," I can call 
" My God ?" My soul ! contemplate the me- 
dium through which it is thou canst see the 
glory of God, and yet live ! " ]STo man hath seen 
God at any time, the only-begotten Son, who 
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath de- 
clared Him." He, who dwells in light inac- 
cessible, comes forth from the pavilion of His 
glory in the person of " Immanuel, God with 
us." In Christ, " the Image of the invisible 
God," the creature — ay, sinners — can gaze 
unconsumed on the lustres of Deity ! Reader ! 
be it thine to glorify Him. Seek thus to ful- 
fil the great design of thy being. Let all 
thy words and ways, thine actions and pur- 
poses, thy crosses and losses, redound to His 
praise. The highest seraph can have no 
higher or nobler end than this — the glory of 
the God before whom he casts his crown. 
But He has a claim on thee, which he has 



10 nn: \u;-it WATCK 

not on the unredeemed angel. w * He Brave 
Himself, for thee!" This mightiest of all 
boons which Omnipotence eow&fgive, is the 
guarantee for the bestowment of all lesser 
necessary blessings, and for the withholding 
of all unnecessary trials. Whilst thou art 
called to behold " His glory, the glory as of 
the only-begotten of the Father," remember 
its characteristic ; it is not a glory to appal 
thee by its splendors, but to win and capti- 
vate thee by its beauties— it is u full of grace 
and full of truth." He is thy God in cov- 
enant. "Underneath and around thee are 
the everlasting arms." Thou mayest com- 
pose thyself on thy nightly pillow, with the 
sweet pledge of security, and say — 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP J 1 OK THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



nan IligH- 

ON THY IMMUTABILITY. 

" r : - 

What a fountain of comfort is to be found 
in the Immutability of God ! Not one ripple 
can disturb the calm of Ills unchanging na- 
ture. AVere it so, He would no longer be a 
perfect Being — He would undeify Himself — 
Jle would cease to be God ! 

" Change is our portion here!' 5 "They 
shall perish/ 5 is the brief chronicle regarding 
everything on this side heaven. The firma- 
ment above us, the earth beneath us, the ele- 
ments around us — " all these things shall be 
olved." Scenes of hallowed endearment 
— they are fled ! Friends who sweetened our 
pilgrimage with their presence — they are 



12 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

gone ! But here is a sure and safe anchor- 
age amid the world's heaving ocean of vicissi- 
tude — "Thou art the same." All is changing 
but the Unchanging One ! The earthly scaf- 
folding may give way, but the living Temple 
remains. The reed may bend to the blast, 
but the living Eock spurns and outlives the 
storm ! 

How blessed especially, to contemplate the 
unchangeableness of our Great High Priest ! 
" Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to- 
day, and forever !" True, He is, in one sense, 
" changed." 'No longer " the man of sor- 
rows" — .the homeless wanderer — He is en- 
throned amid the glories of heaven. Seraphs 
praise Him — saints adore Him ; but His 
Heart "knows no change ! His ascension 
glories have not obliterated His tender hu- 
man sympathies. We can think of Him re- 
ceiving an outcast sinner, or stilling the Ti- 
berias storm, or standing at the gate of Nam, 
or weeping tears of pity over a lost city, or 
tears of sympathy over a buried friend, and 



ON THY IMMUTABILITY. 13 

write overall these, "Thou art the same!" 
The name which He bequeathed by angels to 
His Church until He comes again is — -" that 
same Jesus /" His own Patmos title is His 
memorial for all time — " I am He that 
liveth !" 

Believer ! has He ever seemed to change 
towards thee ? Art thou even now mourning 
over the withdrawal of that countenance 
whose smile is heaven ? Art thou saying in 
the bitterness of thy spirit, " Hath the Lord 
forgotten to be gracious?" — The change is 
with thyself, not with thy God. Behind the 
clouds of thine own departure, the Sun of 
His love shines brightly as ever. " He faint- 
eth not, neither is weary." 

Or, it may be, thou art laboring under other 
trials/ The hand of thy God may be heavy 
upon thee. The secret thought may be har- 
bored that some tear might have been spared 
— that thy chastisement might have been 
less severe — that thy bereavement, with its 
dark accompaniments, might have been mit- 



14 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

igated or averted. Look upwards ! and take 
the Psalmist's antidote as thine own, " 1 will 
remember the years of the right hand of the 
Most High" Think that the same hand 
which was for thee nailed to the cross, is now 
pleading for thee on the throne, ordering and 
controlling every trial, and over every dark 
providence writing the unanswerable chal- 
lenge, " He who spared not His own Son, but 
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not 
with Him also freely give us all things ?" 
Oh ! thus pillowing thy head on the Immuta- 
bility of Jesus, amid the rude buffetings of a 
changing world, thou wilt be able, night af- 
ter night, to say, till the dawn of a morning 
breaks on thee, which knows neither night 
nor vicissitude — 



" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



tlnr* $igftt. 

ON THY OMNIPOTENCE. 

' ' The Lord God omnipotent reigneth " — Rev. xix. 16. 

Believer ! what can better support and 
sustain thee amid the trials of thy pilgrimage 
than the thought that thou hast an Omnip- 
otent arm to lean upon ? The God with 
whom thou hast to do is boundless in His re- 
sources. There is no crossing His designs — 
no thwarting His purposes — no questioning 
His counsels. His mandate is law — " He 
speaks, and it is done !" Thy need is great. 
From the humblest crum of providential 
goodness, up to the richest blessing of Divine 
grace, thou art hanging from moment to mo- 
ment a pensioner on Jehovah's bounty ; but, 
fear not! " I am the Almighty God !" Fi- 



_j 



16 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

nite necessities can never exhaust infinite ful- 
ness — " My God shall supply all thy need!" 

To Thee, O blessed Jesus ! " all power has 
been committed in heaven and in earth." 
" All power /" He has in His hands the 
reins of universal empire. To " the Lion of 
the tribe of Judah" has been intrusted the 
seven-sealed roll of Providence. Whatever 
be the boon which the poorest, weakest, lone- 
liest, most afflicted of His saints require, if it 
be really for their good, the " Wonderful 
Counsellor" secures it. " As a Prince, He 
has power with God," and must " prevail." 
He combines in His adorable Person all a 
sinner requires. A heart tender enough to 
love — a hand strong enough to save. The 
Elder Brother !— the " Mighty God !" How 
He delights in the exercise of that omnip- 
otence in behalf of His own people ! in rul- 
ing over their interests and overruling their 
trials for their interests ! When He prays for 
himself, it is "Not my willP When He 
prays for them, it is "Father, I will!" 



ON THY OMNIPOTENCE. 17 

May I not well take the motto which he still 
bears on His breastplate before the throne, as 
the ground of support and encouragement " in 
all time of tribulation"— " able to save even 
unto the uttermost f " 

" The golden censer in His hand, 
He offers hearts from every land, 
Tied to His own by gentlest band 

Of silent love. 
About Him winged blessings stand, 
In act to move." 

My enemies are many — their name is Le- 
gion. Satan, the great adversary— the world, 
and "the world's Trinity" — the lust of the 
flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride 
of life ; — heart traitors — bosom sins. But " He 
that is for me is greater far than all that can 
be against me." He is " stronger" than the 
" strong man" — " Christ the Power of God!" 
"I, that speak in righteousness, mighty to 
save !" 

Believer ! art thou in trial, beaten down with 

a great fight of afflictions — like the disciples, 

out in a midnight of storm, buffeting a sea of 

2* 



18 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

trouble ? Fear not ! When the tempest has 
done its work — when the trial has fulfilled its 
embassy, the voice which hushed the waters 
of old has only to give forth the omnipotent 
mandate, " Peace, be still !" and immediately 
there will be " a great calm." The " all pow- 
er" of Jesus ! — what a pillow on which to rest 
my aching head ! disarming all my fears, and 
inducing thoughts of sweetest comfort, conso- 
lation, and joy. 



" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



ON THY OMNIPRESENCE, 

"Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or -whither shall I 
flee from Thy presence ?" — Ps. cxxsis. 7. 

The Ubiquity of God ! How baffling to any 
finite comprehension ! to think that above us, 
and around us, and within us, there is nothing 
but Deity — the invisible footprints of an Om- 
niscient, Omnipresent One ! " His eyes are on 
every place !" on rolling planets and tiny 
atoms, on the bright seraph and the lowly 
worm ; — roaming in searching scrutiny 
through the tracts of immensity, and reading 
the occult and hidden page of my heart ! 
" All things are naked and opened unto the 
eyes of Him with whom we have to do." 

" God, I feel Thy presence nigh, 
Everywhere o'er nature's face ! 



20 THE NIGHT WATCHES, 

Wheresoe'er I turn my eye, 

I Thy living footsteps trace ! 
Naught can sever me from Thee— 
Everywhere Thou art with me 1" 

O Gocl ! shall this Thy Omnipresence appal 
me ? Nay, in my seasons of sadness and sor 
row and loneliness — when other comforts and 
comforters have failed— when, it may be, in 
the darkness and silence of some midnight 
hour, in vain I have sought repose — how 
sweet to think, " My God is here !" I am not 
alone. The Omniscient One, to whom the 
darkness and the light are both alike, is 
hovering over my sleepless pillow! "He 
that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor 
sleeps !" 

O thou eternal Sun ! it cannot be darkness 
or loneliness or sadness where Thou art. 
There can be no night to the soul which has 
been cheered with Thy glorious radiance ! 

"Lo! /am with you alway !" How pre- 
cious, blessed Jesus ! is this Thy legacy of 
parting love ! In the midst of Thy Church 
till the end of time — ever present, omni-pres- 



ON THY OMNIPRESENCE. 21 

ent ! The true " Pillar of cloud" by day and 
" fire by night," preceding and encamping by 
us in every step of our wilderness-journey. 
My soul ! think of Him at this moment in the 
mysteriousness of His Godhead nature — and 
yet, with all the exquisitely tender sympa- 
thies of a glorified humanity, as present with 
every member of the family He has redeemed 
with His blood ! ay, and as much present 
with every individual soul as if He had none 
other to care for, but as if that one engrossed 
all His affection and love ! The Great Build- 
er, surveying every stone and pillar of His 
spiritual temple — the Great Shepherd, with 
His eye on every sheep of His fold — the 
Great High Priest and Elder Brother, mark- 
ing every tear-drop — noting every sorrow — 
listening to every prayer — knowing the pecu- 
liarities of every case ; no number perplexing 
Him — no variety bewildering Him — able to 
attend to all, and overtake all, and answer 
all ; — myriad wants drawing hourly on His 
treasury, and yet no diminution : that Treas- 



22 TIJE NIGHT WATCHES. 

ury, ever emptying, and yet ever filling, and 
always full ! 

Jesus ! Thy perpetual and all-pervading 
presence turns darkness into day. I am not 
left unbefriendecj to weather the storms of 
life, if Thy hand be from hour to hour pilot- 
ing my frail bark. Gracious andidote to 
eveiy earthly sorrow, "I have set the Lord 
always hefore me!" Even now, as night is 
drawing its curtains around me, be this my 
closing prayer — " Blessed Saviour ! abide 
with me, for it is toward evening, and the 
day is far spent !" Under the overshadow- 
ing wings of Thy presence and love, 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



I— 



^-1 



ON THY WISDOM. 

"His understanding is infinite." — Ps. cxlvii. 5. 

How baffling often are God's dispensa- 
tions ! The more we attempt to fathom their 
mystery, the more are we driven to rest in 
the best earthly solution — " Thy judgments 
are a great deep !" 

But where sense says, " All these things 
are against me," faith has a different verdict 
— " All things are working together for my 
good. 55 This is the province of faith, con- 
fidingly to lean on the arm of God, and to 
say, "The Lord is righteous in all His ways. 55 
We speak of God " foreseeing ! 55 There is no 
such thing. The past, present, and future 
are with Him all alike. He sees the end 



24 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

from the beginning. We can discern but a 
short way, and that short way through a 
false and distorted medium. In a piece of 
earthly mechanism, we seldom can discover 
beauty in the incompleted structure. The 
mightiest works of science, while in progress, 
are often a chaos of confusion : it is only 
when finished we can admire the relation 
and adjustment of every part to the whole. 
So with the mechanism of God's moral ad- 
ministration. At present, how much mys- 
tery ! But, when in the light of eternity we 
come to contemplate the completion of the 
mighty plan, how shall we be brought to own 
and exclaim, " The works of the Lord are 
right !" 

" But patience ! there may come a time, 
When these dull ears shall scan aright 
Strains that outring earth's drowsy chime, 
As Heaven outshines the taper's light !" 

Believer ! are the dealings of thy God at 
present wearing a mysterious aspect to thee ? 
Art thou about to enter some dark cloud, and 



ON THY WISDOM. 25 

exclaiming, " Verily Thou art a God that 
hidest Thyself?" Dost thou " fear to enter the 
cloud I" Take courage ! It will be with 
thee, as with the disciples ; unexpected 
glimpses of heavenly glory, — unlooked-for 
tokens of the Saviour's presence and love 
await thee ! If thy Lord lead thee into the 
cloud, follow Him. If He " constrain thee to 
get into the ship," obey Him. The cloud will 
burst in blessings ; the ship will conduct thee 
(it may be over a stormy sea) to a quiet haven 
at last ! It is only the surface of the ocean 
that is rough. All beneath is a deep calm, 
and in every threatening wave there is a 
"need-be!" 

Oh ! trust Him, who is emphatically " The 
Wisdom of God." He is thy Counsellor — 
combining the prescience of God with the 
experience and sympathy of man. He thus, 
pre-eminently, "knows His client's case." 
He is pledged to use the discipline most 
wisely suited for each. 



26 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

" Thou whose wisdom guides my way, 
Though now it seem severe, 
Forbid my unbelief to say, 
* There is no wisdom here.' 

" Lord ! if Thou bend my spirit low, 
Love only I shall see ; 
The very hand that strikes the blow 
"Was wounded once for me." 

Under the blessed persuasion, that a day 
of disclosures is at hand, when, " in His 
light, I shall see light," I will trust the wis- 
dom I cannot trace, and repeat, each night, 
as the shadows of -evening gather around me, 
until the nights of earth's ignorance vanish 
before the breaking of an eternal day — 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 






ON THY HOLINESS. 

" Thou only art Holy." — Rev. xv. 4. 

What an awful perfection is this ! It de- 
notes the burning Purity of Jehovah. It 
would seem to form the loftiest theme for the 
adorations of saints and angels. They cease 
not day nor night to cry, " Holy, holy, holy 
is the Lord God Almighty !" It evokes from 
the Church on earth her loudest strains— 
" Let them praise His great and terrible 
name, for it is holy/" 

" Holy, Holy, Holy Three ! 

One Jehovah evermore ! 
Father ! Son ! and Spirit ! we 

Dust and ashes would adore. 
Lightly by the world esteem'd, 
From that world by Thee redeem'd, 
Sing we here with glad accord, 
Holy! Holy! Holy Lord!" 



28 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

My soul ! seek, in some feeble measure, to 
apprehend the nature of God's unbending 
hatred at sin ! It is the deep, deliberate, in- 
nate opposition of His nature to moral evil, 
which requires Him to hate it, and visit it 
with condign punishment. It is not so much 
a matter of will as of necessity. * 

But what pleasure can there be in the con- 
templation of so awful a theme ! The con- 
templation of a God " of purer eyes than 
to behold iniquity" — " in whose sight the 
heavens are not clean I" — Jesus ! thy ador- 
able atonement is the mirror in which we can 
gaze unappalled on this august attribute ! 
Thy cross is to the wide universe a perpetual 
monument and memorial of the Holiness of 
God. It proclaims, as nothing else could, 
" Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wick- 
edness !" Through that cross, the holiest of 
all beings becomes the most gracious of all. 
u Now, we can love Him," says a saint who 
has entered on his rest, not only although He 
is holy, but because He is holy." 



ON THY HOLINESS. 29 

Gaze, and gaze again on that monumental 
column till it teaches the lesson, how vain 
elsewhere to look for pardon ! — how delusive 
that dream, on which multitudes peril their 
eternal safety, that " God will be at last too 
merciful to punish !" Surely, if any less 
awful vindication could have sufficed, — or 
had it been compatible with the Divine attri- 
butes to dispense pardon in any other way, 
Gethsemane and Calvary, with all their awful 
exponents of agony, would have been spared ! 
The Almighty victim would not have volun- 
tarily submitted to a life of ignominy and a 
death of woe, if, by any simpler method, He 
could have " cleared the guilty." But this 
was impossible. If He was to " save others, 
Himself he could not save !" 

Believer ! let the attribute of Holiness be 
the superscription written on your heart and 
life. Abounding grace can give no sanction 
or encouragement to abound in sin. "His 
mercy," says Bishop Reynolds, " is a holy 
mercy which knows how to pardon sin, not to 



L 



30 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

protect it : it is a sanctuary for the penitent, 
not for the presumptuous." 

My soul ! art thou tempted to murmur un- 
der the dealings of thy God ? What are the 
sorest of thy trials in comparison with what 
they wight have been, had this Holy God 
left thee to know, in all the sternness of its 
meaning, how " Glorious He is in Holiness?" 
Rather marvel, considering thy sins, that thy 
trial has been so small — thy cross so light ! 

Blessed Jesus ! into this sanctuary of " holy 
mercy" which thou hast opened for me, I 
will flee. I can now " give thanks at the re- 
membrance of God's holiness !" Deriving, 
even from this august attribute, one of the 
" songs in the night" — 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



ON THY JUSTICE, 

"Justice and judgment are the hahitation of Thy 
throne " — Ps. 'Ixxxis. 14. 

The Justice of God is " His Holiness in ex- 
ercise." Let us repair to the spot marked 
out as the scene of its most awful manifesta- 
tion. In the depths of a by-past eternity, 
the summons was heard, " Awake, O sword, 
against my Shepherd, and against the man 
who is my fellow!" That mysterious com- 
mission has been fulfilled ! The Shepherd 
has been smitten ! Myriads of condemned 
spirits could not have borne to God's inexor- 
able rectitude so awful a testimony, as when, 
on the cross of Calvary, one lone voice sent 
up the wailing cry, " My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me ?" 



_.J 



32 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

My soul, rejoice ! Justice, which erewhile 
demanded the execution of a righteous doom 
upon millions lost, can now unite with Mercy 
in sheathing the avenging sword, and exult- 
ing over myriads redeemed. The Law which 
brought in a whole world " guilty before 
God," can exult with Merc}^ in seeing its 
every requirement obeyed, its every demand 
fulfilled ; the Lawgiver Himself " the Just 
and yet the Justifier ;" unloosing every 
chain of condemnation, and pronouncing, 
" Not guilty !" " O Law !" says Luther, " I 
drown my conscience in the wounds, blood, 
death, resurrection, and victory of Christ." 

Wondrous thought ! — Justice, the very at- 
tribute which excluded the sinner, the first to 

• 

throw open a door of welcome, proclaiming 
that infinite merit has cancelled infinite de- 
merit — infinite holiness has covered infinite 
sin ! While " Justice and judgment are the 
habitation of His throne," provision has been 
made whereby, in perfect consistency with 
every principle of His moral government, 



CXtf THY JUSTICE. 33 

" mercy and truth may go continually before 
his face." 

Reader, it is well for thee often and de- 
voutly thus to dwell on the inflexible justice 
of thy God. It will magnify to thee the 
riches of His grace, the glories of redemption, 
the preciousness of Jesus ! If the sinner is 
to be saved, " judgment must be laid to the 
line, and righteousness to the plummet !" 
"The Sinless One must be condemned," says 
Lefevre, "if he that is guilty is to go free. 
The Blessing must bear the curse, if the 
cursed are to be brought into blessing. The 
Life must die, if the dead are to live !" " In 
prayer in the evening," says Henry Martyn, 
" I had such near and terrific views of God's 
judgment upon sinners in hell, that my flesh 
trembled for fear of them. I flew trembling 
to Jesus Christ, as if the flames were taking 
hold of me. Oh, Christ will indeed save me, 
or else I perish !" 

My soul ! take hold of that touchingly sim- 
ple assurance to which Justice has appended 



34 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

its seal, " Whosoever believeth in Him shall 
not perish !" 

" Wot perish !" and Justice, and a God of 
justice, proclaiming so great salvation — 
safety from the terrors of a violated law — rest 
from the accusations of a guilty conscience — - 
calmness in the prospect of death — Grace here 
— Glory hereafter ! Oh ! what more can the 
sinner need, or the sinner's God bestow! 

"i WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP; FOR 
THOU, LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



ON THY LOVE. 

" God is Love." — 1 John iv. 16. 

" The only real mystery of the Bible," says 
an old writer, " is a mystery of Love." u God 
so loved the world as to give His only-begot- 
ten Son !" What ! that for a lost and rained 
world, the Prince of life should leave the 
bosom on which He had been pillowed from 
all eternity ! and expire by an ignominious 
death on the bitter tree ! Love unutterable ! 
unspeakable ! The reflection of the skeptic 
of a bygone age may have formed at times 
the musing of better minds, " It is far too 
great — it is far too good to be true !" Infinite 
Majesty compassionating infinite weakness ! 
The great Sun of heaven, the Fountain of un- 



36 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

created light, undergoing an eclipse of dark- 
ness and blood for the sake of a taper that 
glimmered in nothingness in His beams. 
" God so loved the world." JVIan never can 
get further in the solution of the wondrous 
problem. Eternity itself will form a ladder 
— the saints climbing step by step in its as- 
cending glories — but, as the prospect widens, 
each new altitude will elicit the same confes- 
sion, " the Love of Christ, which passeth 
knowledge." 

My soul ! seek to enter into the secrets of 
this love of thine adorable Redeemer. Be- 
fore all time that love began. We have 
glimses of it bursting out from the recesses 
of a bypast eternity — " Then I was by Him, 
as one brought up with Him, and I was daily 
His delight, rejoicing alway before Him !" 
And " when the fulness of the time was 
come," though foreseen were all His untold 
sufferings, nothing would deter Him from 
pursuing His anguished path — " He set His 
face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem ;" — nay, 



i 

i — 



OK THY LOVE. 37 

as if longing for the hour of victory, He ex- 
claimed, " I have a baptism to be baptized 
with, and how am I straitened until it be ac- 
complished !" 

Think of that love now! — the live coals in 
the censer of old — a feeble type of the burn- 
ing ardor of affection still manifested by our 
Great High Priest within the veil, in behalf 
of His own people. There He bears the name 
of each indelibly engraven on His breast- 
plate ; " loving them at the beginning, He 
will love them even unto the end !" Earthly 
love may grow cold and changeable, or it 
may die. Not so the love of this " Friend of 
friends." It is strong as death — surviving 
death — nay, deathless as eternity. Listen to 
His own exponent of its intensity: " As the 
Father hath loved me, so have I loved you!" 
u You see in Him," says a pious writer, " an 
ocean of love without bottom, without bounds, 
overflowing the banks of heaven, streaming 
down upon this poor world to wash away the 

vileness of man !" 

4 



38 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

Blessed Jesus ! how cold, and fitful, and 
transient has been my love to Thee in com- 
parison of Thy love to me ! Bring me more 
under its constraining influence ! May this 
be the superscription on all my thoughts and 
my actions — my occupations and my time : 
" I am not my own — Lord, I am Thine !" 
How can I love Thee enough, who hast so 
loved me ! My life shall henceforth be one 
thank-offering of praise for Thy redeeming 
mercies. 

Standing this night on the shores of this il- 
limitable ocean — surveying its length and 
breadth — every wave murmuring, " Peace on 
earth and good-will to men." — 

"I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP; FOR 
THOU, LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



Ihttl] figlrt 



ON THY GRACE. 

' The God of all grace." — 1 Pst. v. 10. 

" By the Grace of God I am what I am !" 
This is the believer's eternal confession. 
Grace found him a rebel — it leaves him a son. 
Grace found him wandering at the gates of 
hell — it leaves him at the gates of heaven. 
Grace devised the scheme of Redemption. 
Justice never would. Reason never could. 
And it is Grace which carries out that scheme. 
ISTo sinner would ever have sought his God 
but " by grace." The thickets of Eden would 
have proved Adam's grave had not grace 
called him out. Saul would have lived and 
died the haughty self-righteous persecutor had 
not grace laid him low. The thief would have 
continued breathing out his blasphemies had 



40 THE 2ttGHT WATCHES. 

not grace arrested his tongue and tuned it 
for glory. " Out of the knottiest timber," 
says Rutherford, " He can make vessels of 
mercy for service in the high palace of 
glory." 

"I came, I saw, I conquered," says Top- 
lady, " may be inscribed by the Saviour on 
every monument of grace. I came to the sin- 
ner ; I looked upon him ; and with a look of 
omnipotent love, I conquered" 

My soul ! thou wouldst have been this day 
a wandering star, to whom is reserved the 
blackness of darkness — Christ] ess — hopeless — 
portionless — had not grace invited thee, and 
grace constrained thee ! And it is grace 
which, at this moment, keeps thee ! Thou 
hast often been a Peter — forsaking thy Lord, 
but brought back to Him again. "Why not 
a Demas or a Judas? u l have grayed for 
thee that thy faith fail not" Is not this 
thine own comment and reflection on life's 
retrospect ? — " Yet not I, but the grace of 
God which was with me !" 



OK THY GRACE. 41 

Seek to realize thy continual dependence 
on this grace every moment. * " More grace ! 
more grace !" would need to be thy continual 
cry. But the infinite supply is commensu- 
rate with the infinite need. The treasury of 
grace, though always emptying, is always 
full : the key of prayer which opens it is al- 
ways at hand : and the Almighty almoner of 
the blessings of grace is always " waiting to 
he gracious /" The recorded promise never 
can be cancelled or reversed — " My grace is 
sufficient for thee !" 

Reader! seek to dwell much on this inex- 
haustible theme : The grace of God is the 
source of minor temporal as well as of higher 
spiritual blessings. It accounts for the crumb 
of daily bread as well as for the crown of 
eternal glory. But even in regard to earthly 
mercies, never fofget the channel of grace — 
" through Christ Jesus !" It is sweet thus to 
connect every (even the smallest and humblest) 
token of providential bounty with Calvary's 
cross — to have the common blessings of life 



42 



THE NIGHT WATCHES. 



stamped with " the print of the nails !" It 
makes them ddubly precious to think, " This 
flows from Jesus !" 

" When with dear friends sweet talk I hold, 
And all the flowers of life unfold ; — 
Let not my heart within me burn, 
Except in all I Thee discern 1" 

Let others be contented with the uncove- 
nanted mercies of God. Be it mine to say, 
as the child of grace and heir of glory — " Our 
Father which art in heaven, give us this day 
our daily bread !" Nay, reposing in the " all- 
sufficiency in all things" promised by the 
G-od of all grace, 



I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP J FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY l" 



ON THY TENDERNESS. 

'He shall gather the lames with His arm, and carry 
them in His "bosom, and shall gently lead those that 
are -with young." — Tsa. xi 11. 

How soothing, in the hour of sorrow, or be- 
reavement or death, to have the countenance 
and sympathy of a tender earthly friend ! 
My soul ! these words tell thee of one nearer, 
dearer, tenderer still — the Friend that never 
fails — a tender God ! By how many endear- 
ing epithets does Jesus exhibit the tenderness 
of His affection to His people ! Does a 
shepherd watch tenderly over his flock ? 
"The Lord is my Shepherd I" Does a father 
exercise fondest solicitude towards his chil- 
dren? " I will be a Father unto you !" Does 
a mother's love exceed all other earthly types 



44 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

of affectionate tenderness ? "As one whom 
his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you !" 
Is the apple of the eye the most susceptible 
part of the most delicate bodily organ ? "He 
keeps them as the apple of His eye !" 

" He will not break the bruised reed !" 
"When the " Shepherd and Bishop of Souls" 
finds the sinner like a lost sheep, stumbling 
on the dark mountains, how tenderly He 
deals with him ! There is no look of wrath — 
no word of upbraiding — in silent love " He 
lays him on His shoulders rejoicing !" 

When Peter falls, He does not unnecessa- 
rily wound him. He might have repeated 
often and again the piercing look which 
brought the flood of penitential sorrow. But 
He gave that look only once ; and if He re- 
minds him again of his threefold denial, it is 
by thrice repeating the gentlest of questions, 
" Lovest thou me ?" 

My soul ! art thou mourning over the weak- 
ness of thy faith — the coldness of thy love — 
thy manifold spiritual declensions ? Fear 



ON THY TENDERNESS. 45 

not ! He knows thy frame — He will give 
feeble faith tender dealing — He will " carry" 
in His arms those that are unable to walk, 
and will conduct the burdened ones through 
a path less rough and rugged than others. 
When " the Lion" or "the Bear" comes, thou 
mayest trust the true David, the tenderest of 
shepherds ! Art thou suffering from outward 
trial ? Confide in the tenderness of thy God's 
dealings with thee. The strokes of His rod 
are gentle strokes — the needed discipline of 
a father yearning over his children the very 
moment He is chastising them ! The gentlest 
earthly parent may speak a harsh word at 
times — it may be, needlessly harsh. But not 
so GOD. a He may seem, like Joseph to his 
brethren, to speak roughly ; but all the while 
there is love in His heart !" The pruning-hook 
will not be used unnecessarily. It will never 
cut too deeply. The furnace wdll not burn 
more fiercely than is absolutely required. A 
tender God is seated by it, tempering the fury 
of its flames. 



46 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

And what, believer, is the secret of all this 
tenderness? '"There is a Man upon the 
Throne!" Jesus- — the God-Man Mediator; 
combining, with all the might of Godhead, 
all the tenderness of spotless humanity. Is 
thy heart crushed with sorrow ? — so was His ! 
Are thine eyes dimmed with tears ? — so were 
His! " Jesus wept!" Bethany's "Chief 
Mourner" still wears the Brother's heart in 
glory. Others may be unable to enter into 
the depths of thy trial. He can — He does ! 

With such a " tender God" caring for me, 
providing for me, watching my path by day, 
and guarding my couch by night — 



" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



OH THY PATIENCE. 

" The God of Patience." — Rom. xv. 5. 

There is no more wondrous subject than 
this— "The Patience of God!" Think of 
the lapse of ages during which that patience 
has lasted — 6000 years ! Think of the multi- 
tudes who have been the subjects of it — Mil- 
lions on millions, in successive climes and 
centuries ! Think of the sins which have all 
that time been trying and wearying that pa- 
tience — their number, their heinousness — 
their aggravation ! The world's history is a 
consecutive history of iniquity, a lengthened 
provocation of the Almighty's forbearance ! 
The Church, like a feeble ark, tossed on a 
mighty ocean of unbelief ; and yet the world, 



48 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

with its cumberers, still spared! The cry of 
its sinful millions at this moment enter " the 
ears of the God of Sabaoth," and yet, "for all 
this, His hand of mercy is stretched out still !" 

And who is this God of patience ? It is 
the Almighty Being who could strike these 
millions down in a moment! — who could, by a 
breath, annihilate the world ! — nay, who would 
require no positive or visible forth-putting of 
His omnipotence to effect this, but simply to 
withdraw His sustaining arm ! 

Surely, of all the examples of the Al- 
mighty's power, there is none more wondrous 
or amazing than " God's power over Him- 
self." He is " slow to anger." " Judgment 
is His strange work." He " visits iniquity 
unto the third and fourth generation." He 
" shows mercy unto thousands of generations !" 
God bears for 1500 years, from Moses to Je- 
sus, with Israel's unbelief; and yet, as a 
pious writer remarks, " He speaks of it as 
but a day ;" " All day long have I stretched 
out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying 



ON THY PATIENCE. 49 

people." "What is the history of all this 
tenderness ? u My thoughts are not your 
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, 
saith the Lord I" 

My soul ! How great has been God's pa- 
tience towards thee ! In thine unconverted 
state, when a wanderer from His fold, with 
what unwearied love He went after thee ; 
notwithstanding all thy waywardness, never 
ceasing the pursuit "until He found thee!" 
Think of thy fainting and weariness since — 
thine ever-changing frames and feelings ; the 
ebbings and the Sowings in the tide of thy 
love, and yet, instead of surrendering thee to 
thine own perverse will, His language con- 
cerning thee is, " How can I give thee up ?" 
For a lifetime, thy Saviour-God has been 
standing knocking at thy door ; and His atti- 
tude is still the same — "Behold, I stand!" 

" But fainter than the pole-star's ray- 
Before the noontide blaze of day, 
Is all of love that man can know — 
All that in angels' breasts can glow — 
5 



50 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

Compared, O Lord of hosts ! with thine, 
Unwearied ! fathomless ! Divine !" 

How should the patience of Jesus lead me 
to be submissive under trial ! When He has 
so long borne with me, shall not I " bear" 
with Him ? When I think of His patience 
under a far heavier cross, can I murmur 
when He murmured not ? Kay, I will check 
every ripening thought, and looking up, in 
confiding affection, to " the God of all pa- 
tience," 



I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP J FOR THOU ; 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



ON THY FAITHFULNESS. 

"Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds?" — 
Ps. xzxvi. 5. 

It has been well said, that " the universe 
around us is a parable of grace." " As the 
mountains are round about Jerusalem, so 
doth the Lord compass His people !" But 
firmer than even these types of immutability 
in the kingdom of nature is the word of a 
covenant-keeping God in the kingdom of 
grace. These mountains (nature's best em- 
blems of steadfastness) may depart, and the 
hills be removed, u hut" says their almighty 
Maker, " my kindness shall not be taken 
from thee !" 

We can look upwards to the stars of night, 
and see the " faithfulness" of God " estab- 



52 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

lished" in the material heavens — " This day 
they stand as Thou ordainest !" But these 
are feeble types and symbols of brighter con- 
stellations in the spiritual firmament — the 
declarations of an unchanging God — u Thy 
word is forever settled in heaven !" 

What a gracious assurance amid our own 
unfaithfulness, " The Lord is faithful !" — that 
the unfaithfulness of the believer never al- 
ters, and can never alter, the faithfulness of 
God J 

My soul ! anchor thyself on this rock of the 
Divine veracity. Take hold of that blessed 
parenthesis which has been to many a tossed 
soul as a polar star in its nights of darkness — 
" Having loved His own which were in the 
world, He loved them even unto the end." 
He loves them in life — loves them in death — 
loves them through death — loves them into 
glory ! 

Art thou not at this hour a monument of 
God's faithfulness ? Where wouldst thou 
have been had not the magnet of His grace 



ON THY FAITHFULNESS. 53 

kept thee, and drawn thy fugitive affections 
towards Himself ? From how many tempta- 
tions has He rescued thee — laying hold of 
thee on the precipice, when about to plunge 
headlong down — employing sometimes con- 
straining , at others restraining grace — mak- 
ing this thy brief history, " Kept by the 
power of God," and overruling all — all for 
His own glory, and thine own good ? 

I love to think of Thy faithfulness, O thou 
"Tried stone," " laid in Zion !" Thou wert 
tried by the Law — by Justice — by Men — by 
Devils, and yet Thou wert faithful ! Thou 
hast been tried by Prophets and Apostles ; 
by Martyrs and Saints ; by youthful sinners, 
and aged sinners, and dying sinners,— and 
Thou hast been found faithful by all and to 
all ; and Thou art faithful still ! 

My soul ! never suj)pose, amid the faith- 
lessness of earth's trusted friends, that thou 
art doomed to tread thy way in loneliness 
and solitude ; there is more than one Emmaus 

journey ! The " Abiding" Friend is left ! 

5* 



54 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

He is always the same! "He fainteth ljot, 
neither is weary !" His faithfulness is a 
tried faithfulness ! His word is a tried word ! 
His friendship is a tried friendship ! He is 
always " better than His word I" He pays 
with usury ! 

" Oh ! who could bear life's stormy doom, 

Did not Thy word of love 
Come brightly bearing through the gloom, 

A peace-branch from above ! 
Then Sorrow, touch'd by Thee, grows bright, 

With more than rapture's ray, 
As darkness shows us worlds of light 

We never saw by day !" 

When I think that at this very moment the 
eye of that faithful Saviour-God is upon me — 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



ON THY SOVEREIGNTY. 

" He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, 
and among the inhabitants of the earth." — Dan. iv. 35. 

How blessed that elementary truth — "The 
Lord reigneth !" To know that there is no 
chance or accident with God — that He de- 
crees the fall of a sparrow — the destruction 
of an atom — the annihilation of a "World ! 

The Almighty is not like Baal, " asleep." 
" He that keepeth Israel" can never for a mo- 
ment " slumber." " Man j?wposes — God dis- 
poses." " Thou didst it !" is the history of 
every event, past, present, and to come. His 
purposes none can change — His counsels none 
can resist ! 

My soul ! how cheering to know that all 
that befalls thee and thine is thus ordered in 



56 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

the eternal purpose of a Covenant God! 
Every minute circumstance of thy lot — ap- 
pointing the bounds of thy habitation — 
meting out every drop in the cup of life — ar- 
ranging what by thee is called its " vicissi- 
tudes" — decreeing all its trials, and at last, 
as the great Proprietor of life, revoking the 
lease of existence when its allotted term has 
expired ! 

How it would keep the mind from its 
guilty proneness to brood and fret over sec- 
ond causes, were this grand but simple truth 
ever realized — that all that befalls us are in- 
tegral parts in a stupendous plan of wisdom 
— that there is no crossing or thwarting the 
designs and dealings of God ; none can say, 
" What doest Thou ?"— all ought to say, " He 
doeth all things well." 

We dare not venture, with presumptuous 
gaze, to penetrate into " those secret things 
which belong unto the Lord our God." In 
all that is fitted in the consideration of this 
august theme of the Divine Decrees to im- 



ON THY SOVEREIGNTY. 57 

part encouragement and consolation, let us 
rejoice ; in all that is mysterious and incom- 
prehensible, let us with childlike reverence 
exclaim, " O the depth of the riches both of 
the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How 
unsearchable are His judgments, and His 
ways past finding out!" 

The contemplation of the Sovereignty of 
God formed subject-matter of rejoicing to the 
Saviour himself in His humiliation: "Even 
so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy 
sight !" And what supplied material for 
comfort and joy to an Almighty Sufferer may 
well dry the tears and soothe the pangs of 
His suffering people. 

O how sinners may magnify their God by 
a calm submission to His will, seeing no hand 
but One in their trials — in giving or taking : 
"The Lord gave — the Lord taketh away!" 
" Who knoweth not in all these things the 
hand of the Lord hath done this ?" 

" Till Death the weary spirit free, 
My God hath said, 'Tis good for thee, 



58 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

To walk in faith, and not by sight. 
\ Take it on trust a little while/ 
Soon shalt thou read the mystery right, 
In the full sunshine of His smile !" 

Will it not further help to the breathing of 
the prayer, " Thy will be done," when I think, 
in connection with the Sovereignty of God, of 
the grand end of His immutable decrees — " It 
is His own glory !" " Of Him, and through 
Him, and to Him, are all things!" What 
more can I desire ? — " all things God's glory 
and my own good ! — • 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR 
THOU, LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



$antUnt\ IKigfet* 

ON THY PROVIDENCE. 

"His Kingdom ruleth over all." — Ps. ciii. 19 

My Soul ! try to see God in everything, and 
everything in God ! Lose thine own will in 
His. Enter on no pursuit, engage in no plan, 
without Paul's prayer and condition, "If so 
the will of the Lord be. 5 ' How it would hal- 
low prosperity and sweeten adversity, thus, 
in all things, to follow like Israel the Guiding 
Pillar — at His bidding to pitch our tents — at 
His bidding to strike for march. Each prov- 
idence has a voice, if we would only hear it. 
It is a finger-post in the journey, pointing us 
to " the right way, that we may go to the city 
of habitation !" 

Often what a mystic volume Providence is ! 
— its every page full of dark hieroglyphics, 



60 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

to which earth can furnish no key. But faith 
falls back on the assurance that " the Judge 
of all the earth must do right " — the Father 
of all His people cannot do wrong. To the 
common observer, the stars in the nightly 
heavens are all confused masses, pursuing de- 
vious and erratic courses. But to the astron- 
omer, each has its allotted and prescribed, 
pathway, and all are preserving inviolate one 
universal law of harmony and order. It is 
faith's loftiest prerogative, patiently to wait 
till that day of disclosures, when page by page 
of the mystic book will be unravelled, and 
when the believer himself will endorse every 
page with, "It is well !" 

Providences may even seem to be. getting 
darker, merging like declining day into the 
shadows of twilight. But, contrary to nature, 
and to the Christian's expectations, " At even- 
ing time it shall be light !" The gathering 
cloud will then be seen to be fraught only 
with blessings, which will burst on the Be- 
liever's head. 



i — " — 

ON THY PEOVIDENCE. 61 

My soul ! " be still, and know that He is 
God !" " Rest in the Lord, and wait patient- 
ly for Him." The mysterious " wherefore" 
thou hast so long been waiting for will soon 
be revealed. The long night-watch will soon 
terminate — in the long looked-for, longed-for 
morning ! 

"My God ! my Father ! while I stray 
Far from my home on life's rough way, 
O teach me from my heart to say — 
Thy will be done 1 

" Then when on earth I breathe no more 
The prayer oft mix'd with tears before, 
I'll sing, when on a happier shore — 
Thy will be done!" 

Blessed Lord ! my pilgrimage path is stud- 
ded thick with Ebenezers testifying to Thy 
faithfulness and mercy. I love to think of 
Thy manifold gracious interpositions in the 
past !— God sustaining me in trial — God sup- 
porting me in perplexity — God rescuing me 
when in temptation — God helping me when 
" vain was the help of man I" " When my 



62 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

foot slipped, Thy mercy, Lord, held me 
up !" And shall I not take all Thy goodness 
manifested hitherto as a pledge of faithful- 
ness in the future ? In full confidence of my 
God being a "rich Provider," I shall take no 
thought for the morrow, but repose in this cov- 
enant assurance of a covenant-keeping God ! 
— " I will never fail thee nor forsake thee !" 
" Thou hast been my help, therefore in the 
shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice !" 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR 
THOU, LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



fifiutttlv p#!rt 

THY WORD. 

" Thy word is a lamp to my feet." — Ps. cxix. 105. 

Man's word disappoints — God's word, never! 
"The Word of the Lord is tried." It has 
been tried by the sinner ; he neglected it and 
perished ! It has been tried by the saint ; he 
has believed it and been saved ! 

What a precious legacy of God to our 
world ! The volume of nature, much as it 
teaches, is dumb on the question of a sinner's 
acceptance. The Scriptures alone can solve 
the enigma, " How is God to deal with the 
guilty?" That question unanswered — in 
peace we could not live, in peace we dared 
not die ! But glad tidings, oh ! precious mes- 
senger from God, hast thou brought to a 



64 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

doomed earth — " God so loved the world, that 
He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in Him might not perish, but 
have everlasting life !" Were there no more 
in this Divine communication than that one 
brief entry, the Bible would still be better to 
us than " thousands of gold and silver." 

But it is a vast magazine and emporium of 
heavenly wisdom — free to all — suited for all 
— intended for all — offered to all ; — an inex- 
haustible mine — the deeper you dig, the 
richer the ore. It has a word in season for 
rich and poor, young and old — for the 
wandering — the doubting — the sorrowing — 
the believing — the dying — the perishing ! 
Reader ! sit at the feet of Jesus in His Word, 
and with the docility of a little child, say, 
" Speak, Lord 1" Approach it ever as if it 
met you with the living salutation, " I have a 
message from God for thee!" There are dif- 
ferences in every heart-chamber, but this key 
fits every door. Make it a faithful mirror, in 
which you see a reflection of yourself. The 



THY WORD. 65 

more faithfully it is held up, the more will 
the sense of deficiency and defilement drive 
you to the atoning blood ! 

In all your difficulties, make it u the man 
of your counsel ;" in all your perplexities, 
make it your interpreter and guide ; in all 
your sorrows, make it your fountain of conso- 
lation ; in all your temptations, make it your 
ultimate court of appeal. When venturing 
on debatable ground, let this deter thee — 
"What saith the Scripture ?" When assailed, 
let this protect and defend thee — " It is writ- 
ten !" 

Precious at all times, it is especially precious 
in " the dark and cloudy day." "We may do 
without our beacon by day ; but where are 
we without it in the midnight tempestuous 
sea ? "I should have perished," says a sink- 
ing cast-away, " in mine affliction, but Thy 
Word hath quickened me." 

" Oft as I lay me down to rest, 
may the reconciling Word 
Sweetly compose my weary breast ; 
While on the bosom of my Lord 
6* 



66 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

I sink in blissful dreams away, 
And visions of eternal day !" 

Be it mine to look forward to that blessed 
time, when the intervention of that Word, 
and all other means of grace, will terminate, 
for, in heaven " they need no candle !" 
Meanwhile, pillowing my head on the "Word 
of the eternal God, and with these glorious 
prospects in view — 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY 1" 



$ixttnt\ IKigftt, 

ON THY ORDINANCES. 

" With, joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of sal- 
vation." — Tsa. xii. 3. 

My Soul ! thou art here far from thy true 
Plome. A wilderness is thy place of sojourn ; 
but Immanuel has provided wells in this 
Baca — this vale of weeping — for the refresh- 
ment of His pilgrims ! In merciful adapta- 
tion to their weakness and wants, He has fur- 
nished means and instrumentality to keep 
alive the flame that would otherwise languish 
and decay. These are the golden pipes 
which convey the living water to the soul, 
fed by Christ himself from the great cistern 
of His own grace. 

Reader ! dost thou love the ordinances of 
God's appointment ? Is the Sabbath to thee a 



68 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

holy and welcome season ? Dost thou gladly 
respond to the summons, " Go ye up into the 
house of the Lord ?" Hast thou felt that it 
is there that " He commands the blessing, 
even life for evermore ? Or holier ground 
still ; do you rejoice, as the solemn season 
comes round, to covenant afresh with your 
adorable Redeemer at His own table — to 
record anew your unalterable attachment to 
Him as your Lord and Master, and commem- 
orate His dying, ever-living love ? 

See that it be not the reverse of all this. 
Do the hours of the Sabbath, once a delight 
■ — " day of all the week the best" — hang 
heavily upon you ? Is prayer less a privilege 
than it was ? Is the closet less habitually 
frequented ? Is the fire burning with a sicklier 
glow on the domestic altar ? Have the ser- 
vices of the sanctuary become more matter 
for the head than for the heart ? Be assured 
these are lamentable symptoms of declension 
— tokens of a backward and downward state. 
"Ye did run well — who did hinder you?" 



ON THY ORDINANCES. 69 

.Return forthwith to the deserted closet- 
crucify forthwith the deadening sin. Hast 
thou not abjured it, over and over, at a com- 
munion table ? Why suffer it again to have 
dominion over thee— robbing thee of all thy 
joy — extracting all relish from ordinances — 
impeding grace — grieving the Spirit? J^ose 
no time in seeking restoration of lost filial 
nearness. " Restore unto me the joy of Thy 
salvation." The lost Bride, in the Canticles, 
found her Lord beside the " Shepherds' tents ;" 
and " of Zion, it shall be said, The Lord shall 
count, when He w r riteth up the people, that 
this man was born there /" Thou mayest 
sometimes have long to wait at the Gospel 
Bethesdas without any visible blessing ; but, 
be assured, the Angel of the Covenant will, 
in due time, come down and show that He 
" is good to them that wait for Him — to the 
soul that seeketh Him !" " Wait, then, on 
the Lord ; be of good courage, and He shall 
strengthen thine heart !" 

My soul ! value ordinances, but do not 



70 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

overvalue them. Put not ordinances in the 
place of the God of ordinances. They are at 
best but the pole to hold up the brazen ser- 
pent upon — the scaffolding by which to get 
up beside the Chief corner-stone. " Hold 
Thou me up, and I shall be safe !" It is not 
" the altar of God," but H God Himself," 
who is " the exceeding joy" of His people ; 
and thus, even if wasting health and pining 
sickness should deprive me of outward ordi- 
nances, I may look upwards to that God who, 
though He " loves the gates of Zion," does 
not forget " the dwellings of Jacob," and 
say— 



" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY I" 



ON THY SPIRIT. 

" Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me."— Ps. li. 11. 

" It is expedient for you," said Jesus, " that 
I go away : for if I go not away, the Comfort- 
er will not come unto you ; but if I depart, 
I will send Him unto you." How momentous 
must be the agency of the Holy Spirit, when 
the adorable Redeemer represented the blank 
of His own departure as being more than in- 
demnified to His Church by the presence of 
this Divine Paraclete ! 

" It is the Spirit that quickeneth." It is 
He who is the agent in the new birth : " Ex- 
cept a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, 
he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
It is He who enables the sinner by faith to lay 



72 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

hold on Jesus, and embrace His salvation : 
" No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the 
Hoi j Ghost." It is He who carries on the 
progressive work of holiness ; — we are saved 
" through sanctification of the Spirit." It is 
He who creates anew the lost image of the 
Godhead, impresses on the soul the lineaments 
of the Saviour's character — " We are trans- 
formed into the same image from glory to 
glory by the Lord the Spirit" (marg.). It is 
He who illumines the page of the Divine Rec- 
ord — acting like a telescope to the moral 
vision — disclosing in the firmament of inspi- 
ration " wondrous things" contained in the 
law, which the natural eye cannot see. It is 
He who unfolds the glories of the Redeemer's 
work — the beauties of His person — the com- 
pleteness of His sacrifice — the riches of His 
grace ; — " He shall glorify Me ; for He shall 
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." 
Nay, the soul of the believer becomes itself a 
temple of the Holy Ghost! Oh, with what 
holy jealousy would the child of God guard 



ON THY SPIRIT. 73 

every avenue to temptation, if this amazing 
truth exercised its habitual and solemnizing* 
power over him — " The Spirit of God dwelleth 
within me !" How would he avoid anything 
and everything by which he would be likely 
to " grieve" this blessed Agent, " whereby 
he is sealed until the day of redemption !" 

" Behold !" He seems to say, " I make all 
things new.' 5 The initial operation is His — 
He broods over the face of the spiritual chaos, 
saying, " Let there be light." The closing 
and consummating grace is His, — He con- 
ducts the spirit through the swellings of Jor- 
dan, till it joins with the ransomed multitude 
before the throne, in ascribing to Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost the glories of a completed 
salvation. 

" Take not, then, O God ! thy Holy Spirit 
from me." In vain are the word, ordinances, 
sacraments, sermons, prayers, without Him. 
All are in themselves passive instruments ; 
His is the omnipotent arm which wields and 
vanquishes. 



— ) 



74 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

Our adorable Redeemer — the great High 
Priest — was Himself anointed with the Holy 
Spirit. That anointing oil, poured upon the 
Church's living Head, "runs down to the 
skirts of His garment," anointing, as it flows, 
all His members, and those that are lowest 
and humblest — (nearest the skirts) — receive 
the most ! 

My soul! if this be thy position — at the 
feet of Jesus — the blessed influences of the 
Holy Spirit, streaming down upon thee in co- 
pious effusion, sanctifying thee more and 
more, and making thee more meet for glory 
— then thou may est well say, night after night, 
until the day-spring of that glory burst upon 
thee — 

u I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY!" 



ON THY PROMISES. 

" All the promises of G-od in Him are Tea, and in Him 
Amen."— 2 Cor. i. 20. 

God has made a Will, or Testament, in be- 
half of His people ! It is signed and sealed. 
It cannot be altered — nothing can denude us 
of our patrimony. The bequest is His own 
" exceeding great and precious promises." 
What a heritage ! — All that the sinner re- 
quires — all that the sinner's God can give. 
In this testamentary deed there are no contin- 
gencies, no perad ventures. The testator com- 
mences it with the sure guarantee for its every 
jot and tittle being fulfilled, " Verily, verily, 
/"say unto you !" He endorses every promise, 
and every page, with a "Yea, and Amen." 
" God, willing more abundantly to show to 



76 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

the heirs of promise the immutability of his 
counsel, confirmed it by an oath !" 

But who provided such a rich Promise 
Treasury ? "What is the source, where the 
fountain-head, from which these streams of 
mercy flow to the Church ? "In Him." Be- 
liever ! from Jesus every promise is derived 
— in Jesus every promise centres ! Pardon, 
peace, adoption, consolation, eternal life — all 
" in Him !" In Him you are " chosen," 
"called," "justified," "sanctified," "glori- 
fied." Tou have in possession all the bless- 
ings of present grace ; you have in reversion 
all the happiness of coming glory : and " He 
is faithful that promised !" Your friend 
may deceive thee — the world has deceived 
you — He never will ! Myriads in glory are 
there to tell how "not one thing hath failed 
of all that the Lord their God hath spoken." 
Rely on this faithfulness — He gave His Son 
for you. After the greater blessing, surely 
for subordinate ones you may trust Him. 

And where do these promises beam most 



ON THY PKOMISES. 77 

brightly ? Like the stars, it is in the night ! \ 
In the midnight of trial — when the sun of 
earthly prosperity has set — when deep is call- 
ing to deep, and wave to wave ; when tempt- 
ed, bereaved, beaten down with " a great 
fight of afflictions" — the spiritual firmament, 
with its galaxy of Promises, will be brightest 
and clearest ! 

" Oh ! who could bear life's stormy doom, 

Did not Thy Word of Love 
Come brightly bearing through the gloom, 

A Palm-branch from above ? 
Then sorrow touch'd by Thee grows bright, 

With more than rapture's ray ; 
As darkness shows us worlds of light 

We never saw by day !" 

But be not deceived ; the night of sorrow 
cannot in itself give you the comfort of the 
Divine Promises. It may be night, and yet J 
the stars invisible. It is only "in ffim"\ 
these promises can be discerned in their his- \ 
tre. My soul ! if " out of Christ," these stars 
of Gospel promise shine in vain to thee ; they 
have to the unspiritual eye no beauty or 



78 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

brightness. In the midnight battle of Barak, 
" the stars in their courses fought against Sis- 
era." They shone on Israel, but denied their 
light to the enemies of God. The guiding 
pillar, so lustrous to the chosen people, was a 
column of portentous gloom to Pharaoh's host. 
But " in Him" as " heirs of God," ye are 
inheritors of " all the promises." All the 
promises ! Oh ! with such a pillow whereon 
to rest your aching head, you may well re- 
sume your nightly song — 

"I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP; FOR 
THOU, LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY!" 



ON THY WARNINGS. 

"And that will "by no means clear the guilty." — Exodus 

xxxiv. 7. 

" He is faithful that promised^ Do we 
bear sufficiently in mind another equal fideli- 
ty — "He is faithful" that threatened? My 
soul ! ponder that solemn word, " who will by 
no means clear !" Remember when that word 
was spoken : it was in connection with a sub- 
lime apocalypse of God's majesty. It was as 
" the ' glory^ of the Lord" was passing before 
Moses ! "Was not this intended to show that 
there is an awful and inseparable connection 
between the Divine glory and the impossibili- 
ty of God's clearing the guilty ? It was at a 
time, moreover, when the benignity of God 
was intended to be more specially manifested. 



80 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

It was when He was declared to be " the 
Lord, the Lord God, merciful, gracious, long- 
suffering, abundant in goodness." Then it 
was, we listen to the awful note of warning, 
that " clear the guilty" He will not, and can- 
not! His law requires — the honor of His 
throne requires — demands — that the guilty be 
"not cleared." 

Reader ! art thou still clinging to the dream 
of final mercy ? Dost thou believe in the first 
part of the Divine proclamation at Sinai, and 
persist in presumptuous and fatal skepticism 
with regard to the last? — that, boundless in 
His resources, and infinite in His love, God 
will by some means " clear the guilty ?" 

Be not deceived ! See that ye do not incur 
the woe of him who " striveth with his Mak- 
er!" The Lord, who "is not slack concern- 
ing His promises," can be as little slack con- 
cerning His threatenings. Time blunts the 
wrath of man, and chastens and subdues the 
turbulence of his passions ; but there is no 
blind impulse — no vacillation in Him with 



ON THY WARNINGS. 81 

whom " a thousand years are as one day." 
" God's threatenings," says a writer, " are 
God's doings !" The law has not one breath- 
ing of mercy for you. There is not one cleft 
in all Mount Sinai where you can escape the 
vengeance of the storm ! Unless you flee 
without delay to Him who has " cleared the 
guilty" by Himself — the Guiltless — becoming 
the guilt-bearer, be assured that through eter- 
nity " you will hy no means be cleared." 

My soul ! art thou yet in this state of peril- 
ous estrangement ? still launched on the cheer- 
less ocean of uncertainty, leaving everything 
to a dying hour, the time to which nothing 
should be left, but to die ! Ponder these liv- 
ing words of unchanging truth — "Though 
hand join in hand, the wicked shall not es- 
cape unpunished." The golden chain of grace 
stretches from heaven to earth, but it can go 
no further — " Seek ye the Lord while He may 
be found." " While /" There is solemn 
warning in that one word ! It tells thee there 



82 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

is a day coming, when the Lord will be sought, 
but will not be " found." 

" Time's sun is fast setting — its twilight is nigh — 
Its evening is falling in cloud o'er the sky ; 
Its shadows are stretching in ominous gloom. 
Its midnight approaches — the midnight of doom ! 
Then haste, sinner, haste, there is mercy for thee, 
And wrath is preparing — flee, lingerer, flee !" 

Header ! cast thyself this night at His foot- 
stool ; implore His mercy. Rise not from thy 
bended knees, until, with His propitiated 
smile gladdening thee, and the hope of His 
heaven cheering thee, thou may est (it maj" be 
for the first time in thy life) lie down with a 
quiet conscience and a pardoned soul, on thy 
nightly couch, exclaiming — 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ', FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY 1" 



V 



ON THY CHASTISEMENTS. 

"For whom the Lord loveth. He chastened." — Heb. 

xii. 6. 

Chastisement ! — The family badge — the 
family pledge — the family privilege ! — " To 
you it is given to suffer" " Troubles," says 
a good man, " are in God's catalogue of mer- 
cies." " Afflictions," says another, " are 
God's hired laborers to break the clods and 
plough the land." 

Believer ! is the hand of thy God heavy 
upon thee ? Has He been breaking thy cis- 
terns, withering thy gourds, poisoning thy 
sweetest fountains of earthly bliss ? Are the 
world's bright spots outnumbered by the 
dreary ? Has one tear been following an- 
other in quick succession ? Thou mayest have 



84: THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

to tell, perhaps, of a varied experience of 
trials. Every tender point touched — sickness, 
bereavement, poverty — all ! Be still ! If 
thou art a child of God, there is no exemption 
from " the household discipline." The rod is 
a father's ; the voice that speaks may be 
rough, but the hand that smites is gentle. 
The furnace mav be seven times heated, but 
the Refiner is seated by. His object is not 
to consume, but to purify. Do not misinter- 
pret His dealings ; there is mercy on the 
wings of " the rough wind." Our choicest 
fountains are fed from dark lowering clouds. 
All, be assured, will yet bear the stamp of 
love. Sense cannot discern yet " the bright 
light in the clouds." Aged Jacob exclaimed 
at first, " All these things are against me ;" 
but at last he had a calmer and a juster ver- 
dict, " His spirit revived !" " At evening 
time it was light." The saint on earth can 
say, regarding his trials, in faith and in trust, 
"I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are 
right." The saint in glory can go a step far- 



ON THY CHASTISEMENTS. 85 

ther, " I see, O Lord, that they are so !" 
His losses will then be shown to be his riches. 
Believer ! on a calm retrospect of thy heaviest 
afflictions — say, were they unneeded ? Was 
this (what Augustine calls) " the severe mer- 
cy of God's discipline" — was it too severe ? 
Less would not have done. Like Jonah, thou 
never wouldst have awoke but for the storm ! 
He may have led thee to a Zarephath (" a 
place of furnaces"), but it is to show thee 
there " one like unto the Son of God !" 
When was God ever so near to thee, or thou 
to thy God as in the furnace-fires ? When 
was the presence and love and sympathy of 
Jesus so precious ? When " the Beloved" 
comes down from " the Mountain of Myrrh" 
—the " Hill of Frankincense"— to His "Gar- 
den on Earth," He can get no fragrance from 
some plants but by bruising them. The spices 
in the Temple of old were bruised. The gold 
of its candlestick was beaten gold ! It was 
when the Marah-fountain of thy heart was 

bitter with sin, that He cast in some cross — 

8 



i 



86 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

some trial — and " the waters were made 
sweet !" 

My soul, be still ! Thou hast in affliction 
one means of glorifying God, which even an- 
gels have not in a sorrowless world : — Pa- 
tience under the rod — Submission to thy 
Heavenly Father's will ! Pray not to have 
thine affliction removed, but for grace to bear 
up under it, so that thou mayest glorify God 
even "in the fires;" and, remembering that 
though u weeping endureth for a night, joy 
cometh in the morning," close thy tearful 
eyes, saying,— 



I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR 
THOU, LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



f to*ittB-ffr$t pg|L 

ON THY INVITATIONS. 

' ' Him that cometh. to me I "will in no wise cast out." — 
• John vi. 37. 

In no wise! How broad is the door of wel- 
come! a God," says a holy writer, " is like 
one on his knees, with tears in his eyes, and 
extreme fervor in his soul, beseeching the 
sinner to be saved !" He met the prodigal 
son half-way. Ere the ungrateful wanderer 
could stammer forth through penitential tears 
the confession of his sins, the arms of mercy 
were around him. The prodigal thought of 
no more than the menial's place : the Father 
had in readiness the best robe and the fatted 
calf ! " There is no such argument," says 
Bishop Reynolds, "for our turning to God, 
as His turning to us." He has the first word 



88 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

in the overtures of mercy. He refuses none 
— He welcomes all ! — The poor — the wretched 
■ — the blind — the naked — the burdened — the 
heavy-laden ; — the hardened sinner — the aged 
sinner — the daring sinner — the dying sinner 
— all are invited to the conference : " Come 
now, and let us reason together !" The most 
parched tongue that laps the streams from 
the smitten rock has everlasting life ! " When 
we forgive, it costs us an effort ; when God 
forgives, it is His delight." From the bat- 
tlements of heaven He is calling after us : 
" Turn ye ! turn ye ! Why will ye die ?" 
He seems to wonder if sinners have pleasure 
in their own death. He declares, "/ have 
none/" 

Reader ! have you yet closed with the 
Gospel's free invitations? Have you gone 
just as you are — with all the raggedness of 
Nature's garments — standing in your own 
nothingness — feeling that you are insolvent — 
that you have " nothing to pay" — already & 
bankrupt, and the debt always increasing ? 



ON THY INVITATIONS. 89 

Have you taken hold of that blessed assur- 
ance, " He is able to save unto the uttermost ?" 
Are you resting your eternal all on Him who 
has done all and suffered all for you ; leaving 
you, " without money and without price, 55 a 
free, full, unconditional offer of a great sal- 
vation ? Say not your sins are too many — 
the crimson dye too deep. It is because you 
are a great sinner, and have great sins, that 
you need a great Saviour. " Of whom I am 
the chief" is a golden postscript to the u faith- 
ful saying." 

Do not dishonor God by casting doubts on 
His ability or willingness. If your sins are 
heinous, you will be all the greater monu- 
ment of grace. You may be the weakest and 
unworthiest of vessels ; but, remember, there 
was a niche in the temple for great and for 
small — for " vessels of cups" as well as for 
" vessels of flagons ;" — aye, and the smallest 
vessel glorifies Christ ! 

Arise ! then, call upon thy God ! We can- 
not say, with the king of Nineveh, "Who 

8* 



90 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

can tell if God will turn ?" He is " turning" 
now — importunately pleading and averring 
on His own immutable word, that He will 
" in no wise cast out !" " Though ye have 
lien among the pots, ye shall be as doves, 
whose wings are covered with silver, and 
their feathers with yellow gold !" Close 
without delay with these precious invitations, 
that, so looking up to a reconciled God and 
Father in heaven, you may even this night 
say— 



" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



ON THY CONSOLATIONS, 

"Conifort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith. your God!" 

ISA. Xl. 1. 

God's people are often apt to be " discour- 
aged because of the way." In the bitterness 
of their spirits, they are often apt to say, with 
desponding Zion, " The Lord hath forsaken 
me," or with the faithless prophet, " It is bet- 
ter for me to die than to live." 

But the Christian has his consolations too, 
and they are " strong consolations." The 
" still small voice" mingles with the hurri- 
cane and the storm. The bush burns with 
fire, but the Great God is in the bush, and 
therefore it is indestructible! "The Lord 
liveth, and blessed be my rock ; and let the 
God of my salvation be exalted !" Earthly 



92 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

consolations may help to dry one tear, but 
another is ready to flow : God dries all. 
There is no want in the aching voids of the 
sinner's heart but He can supply. 

Is it mercy to pardon ? I can look up to 
the throne of the most high God, and see Ho- 
liness and Righteousness, and Justice and 
Truth, all bending in exulting harmony over 
my ruined soul, exclaiming, " This is a faith- 
ful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin- 
ners !" 

Is it grace to help ? I can look up to that 
same throne, and behold seated thereon a 
Great High Priest ; nay, a mighty " Prince, 
having power with God, and prevailing" — 
" prayer without ceasing" ascending from His 
lips in behalf of His people. When Satan 
seeks " to sift" them on earth, His upholding 
power protects them in heaven ! When 
temptation assails them in their earthly con 
flicts, the true Moses on the Mount, with 
hands that never " grow heavy," makes them 



ON THY CONSOLATIONS. 93 

" more than conquerors." When trial threat- 
ens to prostrate them, He identifies Himself 
with the sufferers — He points to His own sor- 
rows to show them how light the heaviest of 
earth's sorrows are ! Even over the gloomy 
portals of the grave He can write, "Blessed 
are the dead!" He alone felt Death's sub- 
stance — His people only "see the shadow." 
He makes it a " Yalley of Achor," through 
which " the two spies, Faith and Hope," 
fetch back Eschol-pledges of the True Land 
of Promise ! 

My soul ! art thou now weary, or despond- 
ing ? Is some cross heavy on thee — some 
trial oppressing thee — some thorn in the 
flesh sorely lacerating thee ? Be still ! He 
will make His " grace sufficient for thee." 
If He has allured thee into the wilderness, it 
is that He may speak comfortably unto thee. 
He has an antidote for every bosom — a balm 
for every heart — a comfort for every pang — 
a solace for every tear. " In the multitude 



I 

94 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

of my thoughts within me, Thy comforts de- 
light my soul !' 



153 



" Tis my happiness below 

Not to live without the cross, 
But the Saviour's power to know, 
Sanctifying every loss. 

" Trials must and will befall ; 
But with humble faith to see 
Love inscribed upon them all, — 
This is happiness to me ! 

" Trials make the promise sweet, 
Trials give new life to prayer, 
Trials bring me to His feet, 

Lay me low, and keep me there 1" 

I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAEEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY 1" 



ON THY PATHS. 

"All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto 
such as keep Eis covenant and His testimonies." — Ps. 
xxv. 10. 

"All the Paths!" It is no small effort 
of faith to say so, — when blessings are blown 
upon and schemes crossed, and fellow-pil- 
grims (it may be beloved helpmeets in our 
spiritual joys) mysteriously removed, — to 
say, " All — all is mercy ! — All — all is well !" 

But they are " the paths of the Lord" — 
His choosing ; and be assured He will " lead 
His people by a right way." It may not be 
the way of their own selecting. It may be 
the very last they would have chosen. But 
when He leadeth His sheep, " He goeth be- 
fore them /" The Shepherd stakes off our 



96 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

pasture-ground. He guides "the footsteps 
of the flock." He will lead them by no 
rougher way than He sees needful. Does a 
father give his child his own way ? If he 
did, it would be his ruin. Will God surren- 
der us to our own truant wills, which are bent 
on nothing so much as wandering farthest 
from the Shepherd ? He knows us better — 
He loves us tetter ! 

My soul ! it is the loftiest triumph and pre- 
rogative of faith to have no way — no path of 
thine own — but with childlike simplicity and 
reliance to say, " Teach me Thy paths !" 
" Undertake Thou for me !" Lead me hoio- 
soever and wheresoever Thou pleasest. Let it 
be through the darkest, loneliest, thorniest 
way — only let it bring me nearer Thyself. 

" O tell me, Thou life and delight of my soul, 

Where the flock of Thy pasture are feeding. ; 
I seek Thy protection, I need Thy control ; 

I would go where my Shepherd is leading. 
O tell me the place where Thy flock are at rest, 

Where the noon-tide will find them reposing ! 
The tempest now rages, my soul is distrest, 

And the pathway of peace I am losing !" 



r 



ON THY PATHS. 97 

O that we could keep our eye not so much 
on the path, as on the bright wicket-gate 
which terminates it ! When standing at that 
luminous portal, we shall trace, with adoring 
wonder, the way in which our God has led us, 
discerning the "need-be" of every tear-drop ; 
• — and to the question, " Is it well?" to which 
often on earth we gave an evasive answer, 
ready with an unhesitating, "It is well !" 
What a light will then be flashed on these 
three oft mysterious words, " God is Love !" 
Then, at least, shall we be able to add the 
joyful comment — " We have known and be- 
lieved the love which God hath to us !" 

Meanwhile, my soul ! if thou art treading 
a path of sorrow, consider, as an encourage- 
ment, that thy Lord and Master trod the same 
before thee. Behold ! as He toils on His 
blood-stained journey, how 'submission to the 
Divine will forms the secret of His support. 
"Even so, Father!" "Not my will, but 
Thine be done !" The True David was 

strengthened with what sustained His typical 

9 



98 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

ancestor in a dark and trying hour : " O Lord, 
thou art My God!" Believer! if it be thy 
God in covenant who is leading thee, what 
more canst thou require ? " His ways are 
verity and judgment :" " He will guide thee, 
while thou livest, by His counsel, and after- 
ward receive thee into His glory I" My 
God ! if such be the design of thy dealings 
and discipline, — 

u I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP J FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



ftottttj-fjofttrtfe iiglvt, 

ON THY SECRET. 

" The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, 
and He -will show them His covenant." — Ps. xxv. 14. 

My Soul ! thy God has some mighty Se- 
cret to confide to thee ! "What is this, which 
(a mystery to the world) is to be conveyed in 
whispers into the ears of His people ? u He 
will show them His Covenant /" 

Listen this night to this blessed " secret." 
Thou hast pondered it oft before. But its 
wonders never diminish by repetition. 

The Author of it is God — the Eternal Fa- 
ther ! He framed its articles before the foun- 
dation of the world. It is an inverted order 
of truth that would represent the atonement 
as the cause of God's love : that love was 
rather the originating cause of the atonement 



100 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

— " God so loved the world !" How runs the 
Covenant-Charter ? — " All things are yours ! 
Ye are Christ's I" " Christ is God's /" The 
initiative — the first overture of covenant mercy 
— was with Him. It was the insulted Sove- 
reign who first dreamt of clemency towards 
the rebels — the injured Father who first 
thought of His ungrateful children ! Won- 
drous secret ! — that from all eternity the Heart 
of God was to us all Love ! 

Think of the Surety of the Covenant ! It 
was the adorable Son of the Father ! He 
voluntarily closed with the Covenant stipula- 
tions : " Lo, I come ! I delight to do Thy 
will, O my God !" He ceased not until, all 
the terms being fulfilled, He could claim His 
stipulated reward : " I have glorified Thee on 
the earth, I have finished the work which 
Thou gavest Me to do !" And still He lives, 
and reigns, and intercedes under the blessed 
title of " Mediator of the Everlasting Cov- 
enant !" 

Think of the Almighty dispenser of the 



ON THY SECRET. 101 

blessings of the Covenant — It is the Spirit 
of all Grace — the third person in the ever- 
blessed, co-equal Trinity ! Think of the 
Heirs of the Covenant. They are all who, 
by simple faith, are willing to appropriate its 
inestimable blessings ! Think of the Security 
of the Covenant. There is nothing but con- 
tingency in other things — all is certainty 
here: "I will be unto you a God, and ye 
shall be to me a people !" Sure ! it has the 
rock of Christ's Deity to rest upon, and a 
Triune God pledged to make good all its pro- 
visions — "My covenant will I not break, nor 
alter the word that has gone out of my 
mouth !" Think of the Perpetuity of the 
Covenant : " I will betroth thee unto -me for- 
ever /" Think of the rich Inheritance of the 
Covenant. Oh ! here is the mighty secret of 
unfathomable love : " If children, then Heirs 
—Heirs of God? " Heirs of God !»— all 
within the compass of Omnipotence to be- 
stow! "God," says Bishop Beveridge, " thus 

speaks, I AM that I AM !— He puts His hand 

9* 



102 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

to a blank that His people may write under 
it what they please that is for their good : — 
He simply saying, in the general c I AMP " 
My soul ! art thou an heir of God ? Canst 
thou look upwards to the throne of that Great 
"I Am," and say "My God?" Happier 
words — a more glorious assurance — cannot 
thrill on an archangel's tongue ! With such 
a Portion, surely I am independent of all 
others. Let that amazing " secret" form the 
last thought of this day; and, as the Al- 
mighty is even now whispering it in my ears, 
I may close my eyes, repeating — 



" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY 1" 



%tontu-itt\ figlji. 

ON THY NAME, 

' ' The name of the Lord is a strong Tower ; the Righteoua 
runneth into it, and is safe." — Prov. xviii. 10. 

Strong- indeed ! " Salvation is for walls 
and for bulwarks. 5 ' Every attribute of God- 
head is such a tower — every perfection such 
a Bulwark — all combined to insure the Be- 
liever's everlasting security. 

My soul ! "walk about Zion, and go round 
about her : tell the towers thereof. Mark 
well her bulwarks, consider her palaces !" 
Mark the strong Tower of Omnipotence ! It 
proclaims that Almightiness is on thy side — 
that there is ONE with thee and for thee, 
boundless in His resources, greater far than 
all that can be against thee ! 

Mark the strong tower of Unchangeable- 



104 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

ness! All earthly fabrics are tottering and 
crumbling around thee — -the dearest of all 
thine earthly refuges has written on it the 
doom of the dust. But, sheltered here, thou 
canst gaze unawed on all the fitful changes 
of life, and exult in an unchanging God ! 

Mark the strong Tower of Wisdom! When 
dealings are dark, and chastisements myste- 
rious, dost thou know what it is to retire 
within this fortress, and to be reminded that 
all, all that befalls thee, is the planning of 
unerring rectitude and faithfulness ? — to see 
inscribed on the chamber-walls, " The only 
Wise God !" 

Mark the strong Tower oiLove ! When the 
hurricane has been fierce — thy heart break- 
ing with new trials — the past dark — the fu- 
ture a dreary waste— no lull in the storm — no 
light in the clouds — oh ! is it no comfort to 
thee to retire into this most hallowed of bul- 
warks, and read the living motto — emblazon- 
ed on its every turret — " God is love !" 

My soul! art thou safe in this impregnable 



ON THY NAME. 105 

fortress ? Hast thou entered within the gate ? 
Remember, it is not to be u near" the city, 
but in it. Not to know about Christ, but to 
" win Him, and be found in Him !" One 
footstep without, and the Avenger of blood 
can cut thee down ! 

"Turn, then, to the stronghold as a "pris- 
oner of hope !" Once, these were colossal 
w r alls to exclude. Now, they are unassail- 
able barriers to protect — a citadel where His 
saints are " kept" by the power of God. 
Every portal is open ; and the God of Mercy 
issues the gracious proclamation, — " Come, 
my people, enter into thy chambers !" 

How safe — how happy here ! " If there 
be tossing and doubting, it is the heaving of 
a ship at anchor — not the dashing on the 
rocks." — (Evans.) In God ! " There is, in 
this," says President Edwards, speaking of 
the same blessed truth, " secured to me, as it 
were, a calm, sweet cast, or appearance, of 
glory in almost everything." We can hear, 
amid the surges of life, a voice high above 



106 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

the storm — the Name of the Lord — "It is IP* 
" It is IP* remarks Bishop Hall, " were as 
much as a hundred names. It is I ! — I ! your 
Lord and Master. I ! the Commander of 
winds and waters. I ! the Sovereign Lord 
of Heaven and Earth. II the God of Spirits. 
Let Heaven be but as one Scroll, and let it 
be written all over with titles — they cannot 
express more than — It is I ! Oh, sweet and 
seasonable word of a gracious Saviour ! — able 
to calm all tempests — able to revive all 
hearts — say but so to my Soul, and I am 
safe !" 



" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR 
THOU, LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY l" 



ON THY FAVOR. 



"In Thy favor is life "— Ps. 

How anxious are we to stand well with our 
fellow-men, and secure their favor ! are we 
equally so to stand well with God ? The fa- 
vor of man, what is it? — A passing breath, 
which a moment may alienate, a look forfeit, 
and which, at best, a few brief years will for- 
ever terminate. But the favor of God — how 
ennobling, constant, and enduring ! In pos- 
session of that favor, we are independent 
alike of what the world gives and withholds. 
With it, we are rich, whatever else we want. 
Without it, we are poor, though we have the 
wealth of worlds beside. Bereft of Him, we 
can truly say with aged Jacob, "I am be- 



108 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

reaved." Nothing can compensate for His 
loss, but He can compensate for the loss of 
everything ! 

" Thou art, God, the life and light 
Of all this wondrous world we see ; 
Its glow by day, its smile by night, 

Are but reflections caught from Thee ! 
Where'er we turn, Thy glories shine, 
And all things fair and bright are Thine." 

My soul ! art thou living a stranger to this 
favor, under the cheerless sense of alienation 
from God ? Sin uncancelled — peace unpur- 
chased — all uncertainty about the question of 
thine eternity ? Who need ask, living thus, 
if thou art satisfied, or happy? Satisfied! 
Impossible — nothing can satisfy thine infinite 
capacities but the infinite God. Nothing can 
fill up the aching voids of thine immortal be- 
ing but Him " who only hath immortality." 
Happy ! impossible, too. There can be no 
happiness with sin unforgiven — the conscience 
unappeased — imperishable interests hanging 
overhead unsettled and unadjusted — death, 
and judgment, and eternity, all unprovided 



ON THY FAVOR. 109 

for ! Living at this " dying rate," peace 
must be a stranger to your bosom ! 

Seek to make up your peace with God. 
Covet His life-giving favor. "What a blessed 
fountain of unsullied joy has that soul which 
can look up to Heaven and say, " God is 
mine !" That word — that thought — wipes 
away every tear-drop, " My Father !" What 
though the perishable streams be dried, if 
thou art driven to learn the truth, " All my 
well-springs are in Thee ?" He may empty 
thy cistern, but the Fountainhead remains. 
Job was the sorest of sufferers, but he could 
bear patiently to be bereft of all, save One — 
" O that I knew where I might find Him /" 
" Go," said Chrysostom, exulting in this favor 
of the King of kings, when an earthly prin- 
cess tried to shake his spirit — " Go, tell her 
that I fear nothing but sin." Blessed state 
of conscious security ! 

" If Thou "art mine, Eternal God ! 
Let fraud or malice, storm or flood, 
Bear all besides away : 
10 



110 THE NIGHT WATCHES, 

The soul's best treasure lies too deep 
For spoiler's arm or fortune's sweep, 
Or time's more sure decay ! 

Death, that all meaner bliss destroys, 
Robs not the spirit of its joys ; 

And if his stroke can sever 
The fleshly seal, 'tis but to bring 
The living waters from their spring, 

And bid them gush forever." 

The same mighty consolation which sup- 
ported Jesus in His season of humiliation, 
forms the solace and rejoicing of His true 
people — " Because He is on my right hand, I 
shall not be moved." Blessed Jesus ! do 
Thou encompass me this night with Thy favor 
as with a shield, and then 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR 
THOU, LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY 1" 



ON TKY JEWELS. 

'They shall "be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that 
day when I make up my jewels." — Mal. iii. 17. 

" My Jewels !" (marg. My peculiar treas- 
ure.) Of what favored created beings does 
Jehovah thus speak ? Is it of seraphs ?— of 
angels ? Methinks at such a title even they 
would take the dust of abasement, and veiling 
their faces, cry, " Unclean ! unclean !" But 
marvel of marvels ! — It is redeemed sinners 
of the earth — the fallen children of men, once 
rude, unshapely stones, lying in " the horri- 
ble pit and the miry clay," amid the rubbish 
of corruption, who are thus sought out by 
grace, purchased by love, destined through 
eternity to be set as jewels in the crown of 
the eternal God ! 



112 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

" The Lord's portion is His people !" There 
is a surpassing revelation of love here ! Great, 
unspeakably great, is the privilege of the Be- 
liever, to be able to look up to the everlasting 
Jehovah and say, " Thou art my portion, O 
Lord !" But what is this in comparison with 
the response of Omnipotence to the child of 
dust, " Thou art Mine!" 

My soul ! hast thou learnt to lisp thy part 
in this wondrous interchange of covenant- 
love, " My beloved is Mine, and I am His ?" 
"What an array of wondrous titles belong to 
the saints of God, and given, too, by God him- 
self in His own Word. " He calls them Sons 
as often as sinners !" Brethren ! Princes ! 
Friends ! Heirs ! Jewels ! Portions ! " Mine!" 

And when is the time when they become 
thus dear to Him? Sinner ! when thou didst 
weep at the cross of Jesus, and joined thyself 
in covenant with God, thou becamest His 
Jewel! Nay, " He has loved thee with an 
everlasting love !" True, thou art not yet set 
in His crown ; thou art yet undergoing the 



ON THY JEWELS. 113 

process of polishing. Affliction is preparing 
thee ; trial is needed to remove all the rough- 
ness and inequalities of nature, and make thee 
meet for thy Master's use. But, blessed 
thought ? " He that hath wrought us [literal- 
ly, chiselled or polished us] for the self-same 
thing is God /" Yes, God himself, the pos- 
sessor, who prized that earthly jewel so much 
as to give in exchange for it Heaven's " Pearl 
of great price !" He has the polishing in His 
own hand. He will not deal too rashly or 
roughly ! 

And where, meanwhile, is the casket in 
which these Jewels are kept till the corona- 
tion-day arrives, when the crown of His 
Church triumphant (every saint a gem) will 
be placed on the head of Jesus ? It is He, 
their Purchaser, their Proprietor, who pre- 
serves them. They are " kept by the Power 
of God." Our great High Priest, the true 
Aaron, has them set in His breastplate ; He 
bears them on His heart on His every ap- 
proach to the throne. They are the precious 

10* 



114 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

stones set in gold upon the ephod, and though 
the sins of His people, and the designs of Sa- 
tan, combine in doing what they can to erase 
and destroy them, He declares that none shall 
ever pluck them out of His hand or from His 
heart ! 

A jewel in Immanuel's crown ! — Not only 
raised from the dunghill to be set among 
princes, but to gem through eternity the fore- 
head that for me was once wreathed with 
thorns ! Shall I — can I — murmur at any 
way my Saviour sees meet to polish and pre- 
pare me for such an honor as this ? 

Let me sink down on my nightly pillow 
overpowered with the thought ; and as I hear 
my covenant God whispering in my ear the 
astounding accents, " Thou art Mine /" I 
may well reply, 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



ON THY JUDGMENT-SEAT. 

" We must all appear before the Judgment- seat of 
Christ!"— 2 Cob. v. 10. 

" All !" There is no eluding that search- 
ing scrutiny — " Every eye shall see Him !" 
My soul ! if safe in the covenant, there is to 
thee no terror in that coming reckoning. 
The judicial dealing between thyself and 
thy God is already past. Thou art already 
acquitted. The moment thou didst cast thy- 
self at the cross of thy dear Lord, the sen- 
tence of " Not Guilty" was pronounced upon 
thee ; and " it is God that justifieth : who is 
he that condemneth?" But this sentence 
will be ratified and openly proclaimed before 
an assembled world. On that great day of 
disclosures God will avenge His own elect. 



116 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

All the calumnies and aspersions heaped on 
their character will be wiped away. And in 
presence of devils, and angels, and men, the 
approving sentence will go forth from the 
lips of the omniscient One, " Enter ye into 
the joy of your Lord." 

And who is to be thy Judge ? Who is to 
be enthroned on that tribunal of unerring rec- 
titude, before whom every knee is to bow, and 
every heart is to be laid open ? " He hath 
appointed a day in the which He will judge 
the world in righteousness hy that Man whom 
He hath ordained !" " That Man /» Oh ! 
it is no stranger ! It is He who died for thee ; 
who is now interceding for thee ; who will 
then stand on that latter day on the earth to 
espouse thy cause, vindicate thine integrity, 
and utter the challenge to everv reclaiming 
adversary, " "Who shall lay anything to the 
charge of God's elect ?" 

My soul ! seek to know this God-Man Me- 
diator on a throne of grace, ere you meet 
Him on a throne of judgment ! Seek to have 



ON THY JUDGMENT-SEAT. 117 

your name now enrolled in this Book of Life, 
that you may hear it then confessed before 
His " Father and the holy angels." 

What an incentive to increased aspirations 
after holiness and higher spiritual attain- 
ments, to remember that the awards of that 
day and of eternity will be determined by 
the transactions of time ! It is a grand Bible 
principle, that, though justified by faith, we 
shall be judged by works. Nay more, while 
from first to last, Jesus, and Jesus alone, is 
the meritorious cause of salvation, yet the 
works flowing from faith in Him and love to 
Him will regulate the degree of future bliss ; 
whether we shall be among the " greatest" 
or u the least in the kingdom" — whether we 
shall occupy the outskirts of glory, or revolve 
in orbits around the throne in the blaze of 
God's immediate presence ! 

Reader ! were that trumpet-blast now to 
break on thine ear, wouldst thou be prepared 
with the welcome response, " Even so, come ?" 
Seek to be living in this habitual state of holy 



118 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

preparedness, that even the midnight cry 
would not take thee by surprise ; that the 
summons which will prove so startling to a 
slumbering world, would be to thee the her- 
ald of glory — " He cometh, He cometh to 
judge the earth !" 

" Never again your loins untie, 
Nor let your torches waste and die, 
Till, when the shadows thickest fall, 
Ye hear your Master's midnight call !" 

O the blessedness of being able, in sweet 
confidence in the Saviour's second coming, to 
compose myself to rest night after night, and 
say, u Even though the trumpet of judgment 
should break upon my ears, 

"I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP; FOR 
THOU, LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



ON THY BAN QUE TING-HOUSE. 

" He "brought me to the Banqueting-houae." — Cant. ii. 4. 

" He brought me !" — all of grace ! He jus- 
tifies, He glorifies. The top-stone is brought 
forth, the banqueting-house is entered, with 
shoutings, saying, " Grace, grace unto it !" 
My soul ! contemplate the journey ended, the 
course finished, the victory won ! Seated at 
the supper-table of the Lamb in glory, guest 
talking to guest with bounding hearts, re- 
counting their Lord's dealings on earth — the 
watchword circulating from tongue to tongue, 
"He hath done all things well!" Angels 
and archangels, too, will be participants in 
that banquet of glory, and bright seraphs, 
who never knew what it was to have a heart 



120 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

of sin or to shed a tear of sorrow. But for 
this reason, there will be one element of joy 
peculiar to the redeemed, into which the 
other unf alien guests cannot enter — the "joy 
of contrast." How will the present " great 
tribulation" augment the bliss of a world at 
once sinless and sorrowless ! How will earth's 
woe-worn cheek, and sin-stricken spirit, and 
tear-dimmed eye, enhance the glories of that 
perfect state where there is not the type or 
symbol of sadness, not the solitary trace of 
one lingering tear-drop ! Then will be re- 
alized that sweet paradox, " They rest," 
" They rest not !" "The rest without a rest /" 
^ They rest!" — the eternal pause and cessa- 
tion from all the feverish disquietudes of this 
world's sins and sorrows, all that would dis- 
turb the rapture of a holy repose, and yet 
the restless activity of holiness — the Divine 
energy of beings whose grand element of hap- 
piness is employment in the service and ex- 
ecuting the will of God. In this " they cease 
not day nor night." It is sublimely said of 



r 



ON THY BANQUETING-HOUSE. 121 

the God before whom they hymn their an- 
thems and cast their crowns, " He inhabiteth 
the praises of eternity !" 

My soul ! seek often to ponder, in the 
midst of thy days of sadness, the joys of that 
eternal banqueting- house. " Te shall hunger 
no more, neither thirst any more !" One 
moment at that table — one crumb of the 
heavenly manna — one draught from the river 
of life, and all the bitter experiences of the 
valley of tears will be obliterated and forgot- 
ten! Look upwards even now, and behold 
thy dear Lord preparing for thee this glorious 
" feast of fat things." " I go to prepare a 
place for you." " I will come again, and re- 
ceive you unto myself !" — -He has Himself 
entered the Banqueting-house as the earnest 
and forerunner of the coming Guests. He, 
the first Sheaf of the mighty harvest, has 
been waved before God in the temple of the 
New Jerusalem, as a pledge of the immortal 
sheaves still to be gathered into the heavenly 

garner. The invitation is issued, " Come, for 

11 




122 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

all things are ready ! the oxen and the fat- 
lings are killed !" My soul ! prepare for the 
meeting ; suitably attire thyself for such a 
glorious banquet. Put on thy beautiful gar- 
ments — that righteousness of Jesus, without 
which thou canst not be accepted — that holi- 
ness of heart, without which thou canst not 
be an acceptable guest. Soon shall the little 
hour of life's unquiet dream be over; and 
then, O the glorious surprise of being ushered 
into that banqueting-table — to know forever 
the blessedness of those " who are called unto 
the marriage-supper of the Lamb !" 

With the prospect of such joys awaiting 
me in the morning of immortality, with the 
dark nights of death before me, and the grave 
my couch, I shall be able to say even of its 
lonely chamber — 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



ON THY PRESENCE. 

"In Thy presence there is fulness of joy." — Ps. xvi. 12. 

Even in this world, where there is much of 
God, how sweet to the Christian is the sense 
of His presence, and friendship, and love ! 
What will it be in that world, where it is all 
of God ? The foretaste is blessed — what must 
be the fruition ! The rays of the Divine 
glory are gladdening — what must be the full 
blaze of that Sun itself ! 

My soul ! dost thou often delight to pause 
in thy journey ? — does faith love to ascend its 
Pisgah-Mount and get a prospect of this Land 
of Promise ? What is the grand feature and 
element which swallows up all the circumstan- 
tials in thy future bliss ? Let Patriarchs, Pro- 



124 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

phets, and Apostles, answer — It is " Thy 
Presence." "In my flesh, I shall see God/" 
says one. " I shall be satisfied," says an- 
other, " when I awake, with Thy likeness." 
"They shall see His face," says a third. 
Amid all the glowing visions of a coming 
Heaven vouchsafed to John in Patmos, there 
is One all-glorious object that has ever a peer- 
less and distinctive pre-eminence — God him- 
self. There is no candle — Why? " For the 
Lord God giveth them light ?" There is no 
temple— Why ? " For the Lord God and the 
Lamb are the temple thereof!" The Saints 
dwell in holy brotherhood ; but what is the 
mighty bond of their union — their " chiefest 
joy ?" — " He that sitteth on the Throne dwells 
among them !" They have no longer the in- 
tervention of ordinances and means — Why ? 
Because " the Lamb that is in the midst of 
the Throne shall feed them, and lead them to 
living fountains of waters !" They no longer 
draw on the storehouse of the Promises — And 
why ? Because " God himself shall wipe 



ON THY PRESENCE, 125 

away all tears from their eyes !" " No nap- 
kin," says a holy man, " but His own imme- 
diate hand, shall wipe my sinful face !" 

My soul! here is the true "Peniel" — 
where you will " see God face to face !" 
Here is the true "Jfahanaim" — where " the 
Angels of God meet you !" Here is the true 
Communion of Saints — " The glorious fellow- 
ship of the Prophets — the goodly fellowship 
of the Apostles — the noble army of Martyrs !" 
Yet all these latter w T ill be subservient and 
subordinate to the first — the vision and frui- 
tion of God! Even .the recognition of the 
death-divided (that sweet element in the Be- 
liever's j3rospect of bliss) will pale in compari- 
son into a taper-light before this " Glory that 
excelleth !" 

Reader ! art thou among these " pure in 
heart," who are to " see God?" Remember 
the Bible's solemn interdict — " Without holi- 
ness no man shall see the Lord !" Remember 
its solemn admonition — " And every man that 

hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself even 

11* 



126 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

as He is pure!" To "see God !" O what 
preparation needed for so august a contem- 
plation ! Infinite un worthiness and nothing- 
ness to stand in the presence of Infinite Ma- 
jesty, Purity, and Glory ! 

Can I wonder at the much discipline re- 
quired ere I can be thus " ipresentedfaultless 
before the presence of His glory ?" How will 
these needed furnace-fires be dimmed into 
nothing when viewed *from the Sapphire 
throne ! " Heart and flesh may be fainting 
and failing ;" but, remembering that that 
same God is now " the strength of my heart," 
who is to be my " portion forever," I may 
joyfully say— 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP J FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



ON THY CLOSING CALL, 

"Now is the accepted time : "behold ! now is the day of 
salvation." — 2 Cor vi. 2. 

Reader ! how stands it with thee ? Is the 
question of thy eternity finally and forever 
adjusted ? Art thou at peace with God ? 
Canst thou say with Paul, in the prospect of 
death, " I ana now ready ?" Hast thou been 
led to feel the infinite peril of postponement 
and procrastination, and responded to the ap- 
peal — " Behold ! Now /" Ah ! how many 
have found, when the imagined hour of death- 
bed preparation had come, that the tear of 
penitence was too late to be shed, and the 
prayer of mercy too late to be uttered ! 

Let there be plain dealing between thy con- 



128 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

science and thy God. Seek not to escape 
from the pressing urgency of the question. 
Thou mayest dismiss it now, but there is a 
day coming when thou durst not ! Let it not 
merge in vague generalities— let it be realized 
as matter of personal concernment — of infinite 
moment to thyself — " Am I saved, or am I 
not saved? — am I prepared, or am I unpre- 
pared, to meet my God ?" Thou mayest 
have, perhaps, an honest purpose of giving it 
some future entertainment at another and 
" more convenient season." Do we ever read 
of Felix's " more" convenient season ? It 
were better not to risk to the experiment of a 
dying hour the solution of the problem — " Is 
it safe to delay ?" Take it on trust, that it is 
a hard matter — a conference about the soul 
on the brink of eternity ! Remember, " God's 
Spirit will not always strive !" All His other 
attributes are infinite, but His patience and 
forbearance have their " bounds and limits." 
The invitation which is thine to-day may be 
withdrawn to-morrow. The axe may be even 



ON THY CLOSING CALL. 129 

now laid at the root of the tree, and the sen- 
tence on the wing, " Cut it down !" 

How awful, if it really be that thou art yet 
living in this state of estrangement and guilt ! 
What a surrender of present peace ! What a 
forfeiture of eternal joy ! 

Haste thee ! flee for thy life, lest thou be 
consumed ! Thy immortality is no trifle ! 
" The night is far spent !" Who can tell, how 
far ? It may be now or never with thee ! 
Thou art about once more to lie down on thy 
nightly pillow. What if thy awaking to-mor- 
row were to be " in outer darkness ?" 

But, take courage — That night is not too 
far spent ! Close this last of the " Night 
Watches," by fleeing, without delay, to Jesus 
— the Sinner's Saviour and the Sinner's 
Friend. It was on the last watch of the night 
He came of old to His tempest-tossed disci- 
ples. Like them, receive Him now into thy 
Soul ! and have all thy guilty fears calmed 
by His omnipotent " Peace, be still !" Are 
there not ominous signs all around as if the 



130 THE NIGHT WATCHES. 

worWs last and closing " night-watch" had 
set in ? The billows are heaving high. "We 
hear the footsteps on the waters ! Amid the 
fitful moanings of the blast — the watchword 
is heard — of joy to some, of terror to others — 
" Maran-atha!" "The Lord is coming !" 

Reader ! art thou ready ? Is the joyous 
response on thy tongue — " Come, Lord Jesus ; 
come quickly?" If this night were indeed 
thy very last^ and the thunders of judgment 
were to break upon thee ere daybreak — 
wouldst thou be able, in the assurance of an 
eternal dawn, to say — 

" I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP ; FOR THOU, 
LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY !" 



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and Wilson's Analogy. 8vo 1 25 

BUNYAN'S Pilgrim's Progress, fine edition, large type. 12mo. . 1 00 

Do. Gilt 150 

Do. 18mo, close type 50 

Jerusalem Sinner Saved. 18mo 50 

Greatness of the Soul. I8mo 50 

BURN'S (John) Christian Fragment?. ISmo 40 

BURNS' (Rev. Jabez) Parables and Miracles of Christ. 12mo. . 75 
CALVIN— The Life and Times of John Calvin, the Great Re- 
former. By Paul Henry, D.D. 2 vols. 8vo, Portrait 3 00 

CAMERON'S (Mrs ) Farmer's Daughter. Illustrated 30 



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